The Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion's Office of Hispanic Initiatives (OHI) will sponsor and co-sponsor a host of virtual and in-person events open to faculty, staff, and students in celebration of 2021 Hispanic Heritage Month, which carries the national theme "Esperanza: A Celebration of Hispanic Heritage and Hope."

“The overall number of Hispanic/Latinx students at Georgia Tech continues to grow and Hispanics/Latinxs are now the largest ethnic minority in the U.S.,” Jorge Breton, director of OHI said. “Hispanic Heritage Month is a great opportunity to celebrate and recognize the economic, scientific, cultural, and social contributions of these communities, especially as the Institute – and society at large – makes efforts to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.”

Diley Hernández, associate vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion added, “Hispanic Heritage Month is always a special time of reflection for the Hispanic/Latinx community. This is a time for coming together, gathering strength in our values, our cultural practices, and through our common stories. It is especially during difficult times like these that the deep sense of community that is so prevalent in our cultures becomes a centerpiece of our resiliency and fuels our hope. Tenemos esperanza en un mejor futuro pues sabemos que estamos juntos en esta lucha por un mundo más justo para todos.” [“We are hopeful for a better future because we know we are together in this fight toward a most just world for all.”]

Some of the 2021 Hispanic Heritage Month events include:

Latinos/Hispanics in STEM: A Career Path Series Featuring Dr. Nicole Mendoza
Tuesday, Sept. 21, 4-5 p.m.

Nicole Mendoza, senior researcher in Wind Energy Systems at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will share her story as part of the GoSTEM Latinos/Hispanics in STEM: A Career Path Series. The seminar series shares experiences of successful professionals of Latino/Hispanic heritage working in various fields including academia, private industry, and government. (Presented by the Latino Organization of Graduate Students (LOGRAS), the GoSTEM Program, and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.)

The Afro-Latinx Experience Panel  
Wednesday, Sept. 29, noon-1 p.m.

Afro-Latinx members of the Georgia Tech community will share personal experiences,  through compelling and inspiring conversations during the Afro-Latinx Experience Panel. Viewers will learn about the panelists’ experiences growing up in their communities as Afro-Latinos. The conversation will also focus on the Afro-Latinx perspective on racial injustice, racism and colorism, as well as proactive approaches to identify solutions. (Co-hosted by OHI, the Hispanics Or Latinos and Allies (HOLA) Employee Resource Group (ERG) and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) IDENTIFY@GTRI ERG.)

Keynote Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture
Wednesday, Oct. 6, 3-4:30 p.m.

As part of the Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Intercultural Lecture Series, the 2021 Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture will feature Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, world-renown neurosurgeon and neuroscientist. (Co-sponsored by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the GoSTEM Program.) Register here.

Mini World Cup 
Friday, Oct. 1, 1:30-5:30 p.m.

Students will display their commitment to teamwork and love for football (also known as “soccer”) by participating in friendly competition on the West Campus Roe Stamps Fields. (Hosted by the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (GT-SHPE, with support from OHI.)

For a full lineup of events, registration, and more information, visit hispanicoffice.gatech.edu/events/hispanic-heritage-month.

The high-profile death of Floyd, who was pinned under Chauvin’s knee for nine minutes and 29 seconds, still brings anguish for many across the world who were already monthslong into the depths of a global pandemic. For some, it provided reason to finally acknowledge that systemic racism and racial violence have been deeply embedded into our nation’s fabric for centuries.

My thoughts last spring were captured in Commitment to Drive Change. One year later, I am still wrapped with sadness and sometimes anger, but I can optimistically reflect on the many changes I have seen around the world and, particularly, within our campus community.

Immediately after May 25, 2020, units across the Institute issued statements denouncing racism and pledging solidarity with the Black community. Campus offices hosted candid discussions on race and its systemic injustices. My office, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, launched the Race at Georgia Tech discussion series and our Education and Training unit has worked diligently to provide increased diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings to meet high campus demand.

Last November, under the direction of President Ángel Cabrera, we launched the Georgia Tech Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (GTDEIC) to identify issues of campus racial and gender disparity, bias, and inequity. Since then, the Council has actively monitored and assessed Tech’s progress toward achieving the DEI objectives that undergird our vision for a welcoming and inclusive campus community for all students, staff, and faculty. Earlier this year, the GTDEIC and issue-area campus experts began working to create a DEI blueprint plan to create an equitable and inclusive community; to recruit, retain, and develop a diverse community; and to support innovative and inclusive scholarship and teaching. President Cabrera will reveal this plan later this year.

In March, the campus decried the murder of eight victims at three spas in the metro Atlanta area – six of whom were Asian women. The horrifying string of events on that day stirred considerable conversation and action against Asian hate and violence. The Division of Student Life hosted one of Tech’s first Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month series of events a month later.

This past April – one day after the conviction of Chavin – we dedicated a space of healing in the new EcoCommons area. On the site of the former Pickrick Restaurant, where its segregationist owner forcibly and unlawfully removed Black patrons despite the then-fresh passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, we honored the bravery of the three Black seminary students who attempted to break down the walls of injustice there. The architectural design of this area is intended to inspire reflection and connections, both with nature and with others.

Finally, many around campus are preparing to recognize the 60^th anniversary of the matriculation of the Institute’s first Black students this September. In 2019, the Institute honored these three pioneers, and its first Black graduate, with the installation of bronze statues on campus. Our focus for the future is to build upon the momentum we have established toward making the Georgia Tech community a place where our people are treated fairly and included.

I know we have a long road to travel, but these campus developments since last spring bring me some solace that we are headed in the right direction on our journey toward meaningful change to eradicate racial injustice. As members of the Georgia Tech community, we all have a duty to deliver upon its mission to develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. We can only achieve this by leveraging our diversity as an asset to capitalize our human potential.

Archie W. Ervin, Ph.D.
Vice President, Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Q: Tell us about yourself, Naomi.

"My name is Naomi Davis and I am a second-year student majoring in business administration with a concentration in information technology management. On campus, I am involved with the Georgia Tech Society of Black Engineers, the African American Student Union, and the Sports Business Club. I'm also a member of Heard Atlanta which is a collective for writers, poets, and lyricists.

"I love music and sports; I play tennis and basketball. I mostly write and perform hip hop, rap, and alternative rap music. (My artist name is NTiGer.) I have been engineering music since age six and been writing songs since the fifth grade. I’m often asked, ‘What can’t you do?,’ referring to my versatility."

Q: What made you want to attend Georgia Tech?

"I’m an Atlanta native and I’ve always loved the midtown area. In ninth grade, I participated with a math internship program here [Georgia Tech]. While in high school, I began to fall in love with the campus and knew I wanted to attend. I'm the first in my family to attend a PWI [predominately white institution] for an undergraduate degree."

Q: What drew you to participate with OMED?

"What drew me to OMED was the Challenge Program, OMED’s numerous resources, and the great people who run OMED. OMED also has a lot of opportunities and events throughout the year that are very fun. Everyone in OMED – from the student participants to the staffers – is a family and I really like the energy that I get every time I step into the Chapin Building [home of OMED, located in Harrison Square]."

Q: Tell us about the work you’ve done for OMED.

"As an incoming first-year student, I participated in the Challenge Program; that was my first taste of OMED. Challenge was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and I will never forget it. I got to meet so many people and recognized all the support that I would have throughout my time here on campus. I was hired as a Challenge counselor for the 2020 program. Needless to say, Challenge 2020 was very different because it was hosted in July, just a few months after the coronavirus pandemic was announced and the campus went into quarantine-mode. OMED organized the program extremely effectively and safely."

Q: Your photo in a Georgia Tech protective fask mask taken during the 2020 Challenge Program opener has gone somewhat viral on campus. How do you feel about that?

"It’s been crazy! It was opening day and I was just chilling on the steps in CULC [Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons]. This guy, I think his name is Chris, [Chris Moore, Institute Communications photographer] came up to me and asked if he could take a picture and share it. I thought it was just going on the Challenge landing page on the OMED website; I was wrong. People started to send me screenshots of my face everywhere in publications around the campus."

Q: You opened for Jason Derulo at Homecoming in 2020. How did that come about?

"One of the things on my college bucket list was to perform as part of Georgia Tech’s Homecoming Concert. I had been working on some popular songs, so I knew I could turn people up. I really wanted to take part because I knew I could bring something different to our Homecoming Concert (being a Black woman rapper/artist). The Student Center Programs Council treated me with lots of respect and were excited to see my performance. I got lots of great feedback from people after my performance and I would love to do it again."

Q: What are your hopes for the rest of your time as a Georgia Tech student?

"My hopes are to meet and network with as many people as I can. With the pandemic going on, this might be a little hard. But still, I hope to gain all the experience I need to be successful after I graduate and enter the workforce."

"Talking about issues of race and racism is hard," said Vice President for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Archie Ervin during the conversation. "Over the past year, in the wake of last summer’s national racial turmoil, marked by the sensless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others, and more recently, the events in our nation's Capitol earlier this month, have made these converrsations even more difficult as concerns about racism and its impact have intensified and continues to bubble to the surface of our national discourse.”

Vivian heads Basic Diversity Inc., a national full-service cultural diversity training and consulting firm best known for its Race Awareness Workshop. His father, a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., founded the organization more than 45 years ago. The firm has worked with a diverse range of clients and organizations including corporations, nonprofits and, government agencies.

“I’ll start off with a statement that is just outright true: racism in America is nothing new; it’s our original sin. It’s been with us from the beginning,” Vivian said, beginning his presentation. “If you don’t understand race, your future success will be limited.”

This year’s program brought together over 300 registered participants in a multidimensional interactive virtual platform, where 60% of participants were current and former Focus Scholars.

The typically three-day program was shortened to two days. However, the program still offered participants the same host of opportunities to learn about graduate school at the Institute as its in-person weekend programs have provided.

“Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, we made the decision to continue the great Focus tradition by utilizing a virtual format which allows us to continue our commitment to making Georgia Tech the most diverse and inclusive technology-focused university in our nation,” said Vice President for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Archie Ervin to participants on the opening evening of the program.

“Even with our virtual format this year, our commitments and programmatic opportunities provided for this year’s Focus Program remain the same as in past years. Georgia Tech’s president, members of our executive leadership team, our academic deans, faculty, and staff are fully engaged to ensure that your 2021 Focus experience will allow you to do what previous Focus participants have done the past 28 years: that is to learn more about the Georgia Tech graduate experience, to explore academic opportunities that align with your educational goals and aspirations, and to meet with faculty and staff who are eager to help you gain the insights and information you need to determine if the Tech graduate experience meets the expectations you have for your career goals.”

President Ángel Cabrera, who earned two graduate degrees from Georgia Tech before becoming the Institute’s 12th president 24 years later, spoke to participants about the program.

“As one of the nation’s premiere diversity recruitment programs, Focus has brought more than 3,000 students from across the U.S. to Georgia Tech, and we're proud to have six former Focus Scholars among our very own faculty, including the new dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. Raheem Beyah," he said. "It’s quite fitting that Focus hosts its annual program preceding the King holiday because its mission stems directly from Dr. King’s message of diversity, justice, and excellence."

Sybrina Atwaters, Tech alumnus, director of OMED: Educational Services and program director of Focus, announced seven Focus award recipients: Brooke Bosley, Kenneth De Jesus, Julia Harrer, Rachel Harvey, Daniel Okegbu, Kantwon Rogers, and Preety Shakya. Two additional Focus Scholars received 2021 Women of Color Initiative (WOCI) Impact Focus awards: De' Aira Bryant and Nettie Brown. 

“The 2021 cohort was unique in a few ways: the first virtual cohort and the first cohort fully empowered to navigate their own Focus experience,” Atwaters said. “At their fingertips, the participants had the ability to capture breakout sessions, issue one-on-one networking requests, instantly share contact details with faculty and alumni, manage direct access to all speakers and panelists, and have on-demand virtual visits to Atlanta attractions.”

The program concluded with a Gold Table discussion moderated by Tech alumnus and Atlanta City Councilmember Andre Dickens, titled “Women of Color in Tech: Shaping the City of Atlanta and Its Future,” featuring Nisha Botchwey, associate dean of Academic Programs with Georgia Tech Professional Education and an associate professor with the School of City and Regional Planning, and Sheila Isbell, chief of Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Software Engineering & Analytics Division. The group discussed a range of topics including how they chose their graduate school career path, the importance of diversity in graduate programs, and self-advocacy.

“It’s good to have your own advisory board, but they can’t all look like you,” Botchwey said. “You have to have people in spaces that you’re not in yet. You have to be willing to stretch yourself” she continued.

Isbell added, in response to a question regarding women of color in tech, “There is a lot of work to do there. As far as being supported or having our work recognized, we are not seeing that. We have to be willing to advocate for each other. We cannot be afraid to self-advocate. We even have to self-nominate sometimes.”

“I am deeply grateful to the more than 80 members of the Georgia Tech community -– deans, chairs, faculty, staff, alumni, and graduate students who came together to make the many components of Focus 2021 possible. Their efforts exhibit Georgia Tech’s commitment to be a leader in diversity, excellence, equity, and inclusion. It is my honor to continue the Focus legacy and lead these efforts,” Atwaters concluded.

This year’s program was dedicated to Shayla Chavis, a North Carolina Central University student and 2020 Focus participant who died last August.

The 2021 program was supported by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Office of Minority Educational Development, and the Hopper-Dean Foundation.

To learn more about the Focus Program, visit focus.gatech.edu.

The GTDEIC will continuously monitor and assess the Institute’s progress on achieving its goals for becoming a model campus community for diversity, equity, and inclusion and develop evidenced, informed recommendations, which they will submit periodically to Cabrera and the Institute’s Executive Leadership Team for consideration in developing strategic actions.

“Our Diversity and Inclusion Council is one of several action steps announced this past summer to deliver on our promise of inclusion,” said President Cabrera. “As outlined in our new strategic plan, we are striving to remove barriers to access and success, and to build an inclusive community where people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to learn and contribute to our mission. I am grateful to the individuals who volunteered to serve as inaugural council members, and look forward to working closely with them as they identify issues and propose new courses of action.”

Campus research has revealed discrepancies in the satisfaction levels of various groups. The 2017 Faculty and Staff Climate Assessment Surveys and 2018 Student Climate Assessment Survey revealed high levels of faculty, staff, and student satisfaction on a wide array of campus experiences on a number of dimensions measured across multiple social identities, such as faculty rank, job function, gender, and race.

“The surveys also revealed there are some important differences in levels of satisfaction reported regarding some campus experiences,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI). “Disaggregation of the data by social identity reveal lower levels of satisfaction with campus experiences on a number of dimensions measured by the survey that deserve attention and deeper exploration to understand why the differences exist and what action steps, if any, could be taken to address root causes of problematic or potentially adverse differences of experiences for campus members.”

“In sum, the climate assessment reports help us to understand our strengths and suggest areas where we should focus our attention to improve experiences of some members of the Tech community,” Ervin added. “Given the baseline data obtained by the Climate Assessment Surveys, and the recent development of college-level diversity councils, the establishment of an Institute-wide council on diversity, equity, and inclusion is both timely and necessary for the next iteration of an improved overarching strategy to achieve Tech’s goals for diversity and inclusion.”

The GTDEIC will be charged with the following objectives:

• Provide a forum for Georgia Tech stakeholders representing all divisions of the Institute to identify and consider forward-looking, proactive strategies, methods, and approaches to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and outcomes at Georgia Tech;
   
• Create a setting in which Institute leadership can share and vet diversity, equity, and inclusion-related issues and opportunities; and
   
• Develop data-informed recommendations to improve diversity, equity and inclusion and allow the Institute to lead by example as a model institution advancing inclusive innovation.

The group will be chaired by Ervin, and Pearl Alexander, executive director of IDEI’s Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement, will serve as vice chair. The GTDEIC is composed of representatives from across the campus academic and administrative units, faculty, staff and student governance (undergraduate and graduate) and other faculty and staff who enhance the diversity of perspective of the Council.

In addition to Ervin and Alexander, council members include the following:

Chaouki Abdallah, Maryam Alavi, Sonia Alverez-Robinson, Nelson Baker, Raheem Beyah, Terry Blum, Barrett Carson, Kim Cobb, Carol Colatrella, Karie Davis-Nozemack, Melanie DeMaeyer, Stephen Eick, Samuel Ellis, Kaye Husbands Fealing, Bonnie Ferri, Byron Fitch, Kelly Fox, Mary Frank Fox, Steven Girardot, Rebecca “Beki” Grinter, Martha Grover, Kim Harrington, Diley Hernández, LouLou Hong, Darren Hubbard, James Hudgens, Javier Irizarry, Charles Isbell, Denise Johnson-Marshall, Paul Kohn, Renee Kopkowski, Keona Lewis, Susan Lozier, Joe Ludlum, Steve McLaughlin, Joseph Montoya, Tegra Myanna, Frank Neville, Loraine Phillips, Stephanie Ray, Elora Raymond, Michelle Rinehart, David Ross, Leslie Sharp, Todd Stansbury, John Stein, Yuanzhi Tang, Frank Trammer, Richard Utz, and Mitchell Walker.

It was in the context of that last detail that ISyE reached out to Caldwell, who enthusiastically agreed to share – among other topics – his thoughts on how his Ecuadorian family has shaped his personal values, what it’s like to be a Hispanic STEM student at the Institute, and the impact of GT-SHPE on his college experience. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

We are in a time where conversations around the experiences of people of color are being rightfully foregrounded. What thoughts have you had about this cultural moment?

Our nation has not only grappled with a pandemic that is disproportionately affecting minority communities, but we also have been repeatedly shocked by instances of police brutality that are just a glimpse of what the Black community in the U.S. regularly faces. The dire need for social action is inescapable.

Yet I look ahead, feeling both challenged and optimistic. More than ever before, people are awakening to these perpetual injustices – although the reluctance to make substantive change and “what about-isms” unfortunately has been quick to follow. I personally wish to work toward making this moment a catalyst for a focused movement that is built for the long-term. Our generation has a momentous calling to funnel innovation and conscience into needed social change.

Tell us about your background and family origin. How has being of Ecuadorian extraction impacted your life?

My parents met in the small town of Sucúa, Ecuador. My mother, a town resident, was a waitress, and my father was a Peace Corps volunteer from the U.S. Both struggled with jobs that paid less than minimum wage, and they moved to the U.S. with few financial resources and big dreams of being able to support their family. Raised traveling back and forth between the U.S. and Ecuador, I was deeply molded to value the integrity of community and the significance of culture; this truly informed the ambitions I have and the value I hold for serving others. I am thankful for a heritage that has inspired me to spark innovation for the underserved and to never lose sight of la familia’s profound importance. 

What would you like the ISyE and larger Georgia Tech communities to know about being a Hispanic student at the Institute? 

I am so grateful for the way our Institute not only values diversity and supports our Latinx/Hispanic community but also amplifies our voices and unlocks opportunities for us to advance with confidence through the Office of Hispanic Initiatives, the Office of Minority Education, and other core initiatives at Tech. There are certainly barriers and stereotypes that have posed challenges throughout my college journey. At the same time, I still face biased perceptions around my very presence in STEM and have been kept out of internships, organizations, and professional opportunities simply for not having a more traditional background and “fit.”

Fortunately, ISyE and the broader Tech community have forged a culture that embraces differences and truly sets the tone for leading with diversity. Now in my third year, I look back at having been selected for the pilot Freshman Diversity Leaders Internship with McKinsey & Company as a testament to Georgia Tech’s leadership on this front, as it was one of the few schools in the U.S. to be part of this launch propelling top diverse students.

When did you get involved in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and how has the organization contributed to your college experience?

I got involved with GT-SHPE my very first semester at Georgia Tech, and it has honestly been a transformative experience. I find GT-SHPE to be an organization that is unique in the different experiences it offers students, both professionally and socially. I have had a chance to be involved with everything from our Mini World Cup, singing for the Taste of Latin America (an event showcasing Hispanic culture for all students), being a PEP mentor, and – currently – serving as external vice president. GT-SHPE is a place where I have truly felt at home, with people who resonate with my background and connect on shared interests and passions.

As the second largest collegiate SHPE chapter in the U.S., we now have 340 members. Having raised about $40,000 just this semester to fund all programmatic activities, it has been immensely rewarding for me to lead our corporate relations and events, national convention, and professional experience program. This is a community I have been able to lean on and grow with, and in return, it is one I wish to propel further so each member can achieve their dreams. 

Tell us more about PEP.

PEP stands for our Professional Experience Program. At its core, PEP is an opportunity for motivated students – PEPies – to be individually paired with older students – PEPos – who serve as mentors. This program is extremely actionable and provides a phenomenal outlet for students (particularly first-years) to transition into Georgia Tech with a gust of wind in their sails. As part of the program, students participate in everything from workshops on resume writing and personal brand building to learning how to navigate all aspects of their Georgia Tech journey. PEPies are encouraged and equipped to believe in their exciting potential as Hispanic students at Georgia Tech.

For me, it’s full-circle to have been a PEPo last year and now to be leading the program of 50 or so students. These one-on-one interactions that take place through the program are some of the most meaningful to me.

Anything final thoughts?

I believe that an integral part of the narrative of future innovation is being written by the ideas that receive venture capital backing, yet with funding only going to 9% women, 1% Black, and 2% Latinx founders, there is a glaring need to improve entrepreneurial diversity. 

At the start of this school year, I connected with local VCs, entrepreneurs, and Institute program directors to share my idea for a Georgia Tech-based, student-run VC that would specifically support underrepresented minority student founders. I am currently in the process of building this fund, Futuro Ventures, with support from CREATE-X leadership. If you are a student, faculty member, or alum interested in learning more either about the funding or operating side, feel free to reach out to me!

Nazario, an award-winning journalist whose stories have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems, such as poverty, drug addiction, and immigration, has won two Pulitzer Prizes. She is best known for “Enrique’s Journey,” her story of a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother in the U.S. Published as a series in the Los Angeles Times, “Enrique’s Journey” won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2003. It was turned into a book and became a national bestseller.

“Latinx are nearly 1 in 5 Americans now in the United States, so I think putting a focus on Latinos is really important,” said Nazario.

“I have written about many social justice issues as a reporter, but it was really my past that has guided me to fight for perhaps the most vulnerable, I think – children who arrive alone at our borders and are often running from harm,” she said before launching into harrowing stories of journeying with children to cross Central American countries to reach relatives (often parents) in the U.S. and discussion about the need for better allowances for migrants to enter the country.

“When a child is knocking at our door and is in danger, I believe a country like ours should open the door," she added.

“Sonia Nazario is truly committed to social justice," said Jorge Breton, director of OHI. "Her lecture was powerful. Learning about the struggles and experiences of many immigrants gave me and others a different perspective about the conditions they face in their native countries, made us reflect on what we as individuals and as a nation could do to help them, and provided us with a better appreciation of what it means to live in this country."

To learn more about 2020 Hispanic Heritage Month at Georgia Tech, visit: https://hispanicoffice.gatech.edu/events/hispanic-heritage-month.

NOTE: This story has been edited to remove the video recording of the lecture.

Hosted by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI), the event featured campus presenters discussing disability awareness and its importance to diversity, inclusion, and the campus community, and more than 600 viewers tuned in. This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush.

“Unfortunately, many members of the Tech community have a limited understanding of the term ‘access’ when it comes to understanding the myriad challenges faced by some members of our community,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for IDEI, ahead of the event. “Many of us understand issues of physical access to facilities and technologies. However, fewer realize that many members of our community face additional barriers — both visible and invisible to most of us.”

Featured speaker Haben Girma, the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law School and author of Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law School, opened the event and relayed the importance of disability inclusion and disability technologies.

“If we can harness more awareness between disability and technology and innovation, everyone will benefit,” Girma said, speaking with the assistance of a hearing translator and braille computer.

“I have a braille computer; along the bottom are dots. I run my fingers over the dots and feel the patterns,” Girma demonstrated. “The patterns of the dots make braille. During this presentation, this is what I’m using for communication. I have an assistant who will be typing what people are saying.”

Girma urged viewers to let go of the idea that disabilities are a burden. “We have to resist those stories and instead reframe what disability means.” She described winning battles while at Harvard Law (such as successfully arguing for braille menus in campus cafeterias) and learning to salsa dance and surf. Today, she travels the world teaching the benefits of choosing inclusion.

The event also featured three panel presentations and discussions, including a group who discussed their experiences with their disabilities on campus and in everyday life.

“Awareness is only one part of it,” said Danny Housley, assistive technology manager with Tools for Life, part of the College of Design’s Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI). “I use a white cane and I’m blind. You’re now aware that I have a disability — what does that change? We want to move toward acceptance of disability and for people to look at it like a trait, like anything else. I may be blind, but that doesn’t mean that I’m incapable of working.”

“I think this is a great step toward things that we need to be doing more of,” added Liz Persaud, also a CIDI staffer and panelist. “Recognizing that we have a diversity symposium and being able to focus specifically on disability issues is unbelievably important.”

Other panels focused on Tech-centered disability technology research and development, design, and Georgia Tech’s IT accessibility policies.

“The 2020 Diversity Symposium raised critical awareness of accessibility issues and exclusion that many in our Georgia Tech community and around the world face due to poor design of the built and digital environment,” said Chantal Kerssens, panelist and CIDI’s executive director and director of research. “Disabilities, permanent and temporary, are much more common than we think. Removing barriers and designing for inclusion opens up society and unlocks joy and productivity from which we all stand to benefit.”

The symposium also featured live captioning from CIDI.

“The Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation was a proud partner in planning the event and we were proud to share our lived experiences, our scholarship, and our service to communities around the country,” Kerssens added.

The event ended with the annual awards presented to this year’s Faces of Inclusive Excellence honorees and the Diversity Champion Awards honorees, who were recognized for their achievements in accessibility and inclusion on campus. They included Cassie S. Mitchell, assistant professor, Biomedical Engineering (faculty winner); Johan “John” Rempel, UX/ICT quality assurance manager, CIDI (staff winner); Nandita Gupta, graduate student, Human-Computer Interaction (student winner); and the Writing and Communication Program in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts School of Literature, Media, and Communication (unit winner).

“This year’s Diversity Symposium told the story that every person in the Tech community is valued and entitled to full access to all that we have to offer to fulfill each person’s aspirations, Ervin added. “Seeing access as an issue of inclusion demonstrates that everyone is welcomed and that we should all be dedicated to eliminating barriers of any kind for our community members.”

To learn more and to view the event’s panel recordings, visit: diversity.gatech.edu/12th-annual-georgia-tech-diversity-symposium.

A full transcript of the event is also available here. 

“After an extensive national search, the candidate who rose to the top was our own Steve McLaughlin, the current Dean of our top-ranking College of Engineering,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “Steve has served in leadership roles at Georgia Tech for nearly 25 years and is co-chairing the Steering Committee for the Institute’s new strategic plan, which will be launched later this fall. He is an inclusive leader who puts words into action as evidenced by the flagship CREATE-X program for student entrepreneurship that he helped develop and launch six years ago, as well as the work he’s done across campus in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and student mental health and well-being, which he is so passionate about.”

Aside from his proven record in championing innovation, McLaughlin’s strengths also align with the Institute’s new strategic themes of amplifying impact, expanding access, cultivating well-being, leading by example, and connecting globally.

He served as deputy director of Georgia Tech-Lorraine for two years and subsequently became the Institute’s first Vice Provost for International Initiatives and the Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement. In addition, he served as the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the School of Electrical Engineering before serving as Dean and Southern Company Chair in the College of Engineering. He has also focused efforts to grow diversity, equity, and inclusion in the College of Engineering.

“The College of Engineering has been consistently ranked by Diverse Issues in Higher Education as number one in engineering doctoral degrees awarded to African Americans and is the largest producer of engineering degrees awarded to women and underrepresented minority students,” Cabrera said. “I very much appreciate Steve’s contributions to these outcomes and his commitment to expanding access to students of all backgrounds.”

During his three-year tenure as Dean and Southern Company Chair of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, the College has continued to rank among the country’s top five engineering institutions. The U.S. News & World Report 2021 “Best Colleges” undergraduate rankings announced yesterday reinforced the success of the College under McLaughlin’s leadership. The Institute remains ranked No. 4 for best undergraduate engineering programs overall, and six of the 10 programs are ranked No. 1 among public universities. The College also received more than $270 million in research awards in 2019.

“It is a dream come true to step into the role of Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Georgia Tech, a top 10 public university, and a place I truly love,” said McLaughlin. “I am filling big shoes as Dr. Rafael Bras steps down, and I am grateful for his guidance over the years. I intend to build on his work while driving forward the strategy we’ve built to develop leaders who advance the human condition.”

An 18-person advisory committee, co-chaired by Dr. Charles Isbell, Dean of the College of Computing and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair, and Dr. Susan Lozier, Dean of the College of Sciences and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair, conducted a thorough national search with the support of Heidrick & Struggles.

“I extend my deepest gratitude to Charles, Susan, and the entire search committee for the work they did to evaluate an extraordinary pool of candidates and present a talented and diverse set of choices,” said Cabrera. “Even in the midst of the challenges we’ve faced with Covid-19, this group continued to move forward to identify an impressive slate of candidates. Their work helped me select the candidate who will help lead Georgia Tech into the next decade of innovation, research, and academic excellence.”

McLaughlin fills the role after a decade of leadership with Dr. Rafael Bras in the position. During that time, Georgia Tech established itself among the leading public universities in the nation. Among his many accomplishments at Georgia Tech, Bras launched the Commission on Creating the Next in Education, an Institute-wide effort to shape the future of higher education. Under his leadership, Georgia Tech launched the pioneering Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) program, as well as subsequent online degree programs in analytics and cybersecurity that, together, enroll more than 12,000 students globally. This semester the work Bras did on Library Next, a multimillion-dollar, technology-focused reimagining of the intellectual center of the campus was completed as the final library building opened in the center of East Campus.

“I am grateful for the lasting impact that Rafael’s leadership has had,” said Cabrera. “I very much look forward to working with Steve to build on that very solid foundation as we find new ways to deliver on our mission of Progress and Service.”

Details about an interim Dean for the College of Engineering and plans to begin a search for a permanent replacement will be announced in the coming weeks.

About Dr. Steven McLaughlin 

Dr. Steven W. McLaughlin is currently the Dean and Southern Company Chair of the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He currently serves as the chief academic officer of the College and provides leadership to more than 500 faculty members and more than 17,000 students at the largest engineering college in the country.

McLaughlin received the B.S.E.E. degree from Northwestern University, the M.S.E. degree from Princeton University, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan. He joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech in September 1996. From 2012 to 2017 he was the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and from 2007 to 2012, he was Vice Provost for International Initiatives and Steven A. Denning Chair in Global Engagement.

In 2014, he co-founded CREATE-X, a campuswide effort to instill entrepreneurial confidence in students and help them launch companies. The program has successfully launched 159 student-led companies and engaged 4,000 students in the principles and practice of evidence-based entrepreneurship.

In 2011, he was awarded the honor Chevalier de l`Ordre Nationale du Merite, (Knight of the French National Order of Merit), the second highest civilian award given by the Republic of France. He was the first Georgia Tech recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) where he was cited by President Bill Clinton "for leadership in the development of high-capacity, nonbinary optical recording formats." He is a past President of the IEEE Information Theory Society and a Fellow of the IEEE.

His research interests are in the general area of communications and information theory. His research group has published in the areas of forward error correction and equalization in wireless communications, magnetic/optical data storage, and data security and privacy. His group has published and presented more than 250 papers in journals and conferences and holds 36 U.S. patents. 

This is the seventh consecutive year the Institute has been named a HEED Award recipient.

“Our diversity and inclusion core values support our vision for building and sustaining an inclusive and welcoming community,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI). “In the years ahead, these values will also undergird our commitment to ensuring success for all our students, staff, and faculty so they can thrive and succeed unimpeded by social barriers.”

Open to all colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, the award measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment in regard to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs, and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff.

The HEED Award announcement comes on the heels of Tech’s enrollment of a record number of first-year, transfer, and dual-enrollment students this fall and IDEI’s creation of Diversity and Inclusion Education and Training earlier this year to lead a broad range of education and training focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion for the campus community.

"The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion," said Lenore Pearlstein, co-publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. "As we continue to see a record number of HEED Award applicants each year, nearly every school tells us they use the application itself as a tool to create new programs and to benchmark their accomplishments across campus. The process allows them to reflect on their successes and also determine where more work needs to be done. We also continue to raise the standards in selecting HEED institutions."

To learn more and for a full listing of 2020 HEED Award recipients, visit https://www.insightintodiversity.com/about-the-heed-award/2020-recipients/.

The typically five-week summer intensive academic program was shortened to three.

The incoming first-year student participants engaged in the program’s various community, athletic, and corporate activities while wearing protective masks.

Academic courses were hybrid – and smaller – to accommodate for physical distancing.

Students resided in single-occupancy dorm rooms in the campus’ Gray House (formerly known as Fourth Street Apartments).

A smaller cohort of 75 were welcomed this year.

Still, the 40^th iteration of the program successfully upheld its pledge to prepare incoming first-year underrepresented minority students for college life at Georgia Tech by addressing the 7Cs: computer science, chemistry, calculus, communication, career development, cultural competency, and community service.

“The 2020 Challenge program will be remembered as historic for at least two reasons,” said Archie Ervin, vice president of Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on a recorded video message during the program’s closing ceremonies on August 13.

“First, you as members of Challenge 2020 helped defy the odds and overcome obstacles the Covid-19 pandemic presented to us which threatened our chances for even conducting Challenge for its 40^th straight year. Second, history will acknowledge all of you for doing all the right things and staying focused on your academic goals that helped make Challenge 2020 successful in spite of the odds against us,” he continued. “Even though Challenge 2020 was shortened by a couple of weeks, I’m confident we accomplished all of our important goals and objects for the program.”

“Challenge has been one of the best experiences of my life,” said Cameron Heard, an incoming biomedical engineering major. “The academic courses here were very rigorous and I feel like they’ve prepared me for the courses I’ll see at Tech. Most importantly, I feel Challenge has helped me grow overall as a person.”

In addition to the academic rigor, participants took part in virtual dinners with corporate partners; performed community service activities; participated for a scavenger hunt; made new friends during the opening weekend cookout; and battled the rapids of the Ocoee River during the annual white water rafting excursion – all while practicing safe measures in the wake of the pandemic.

“We implemented additional measures for Challenge outside of what many of our participants were used to practicing on their own, so naturally there was a period of adjustment,” said Jelani Liddell, OMED’s assistant director of Outreach Initiatives and director of the program. “Our Challenge counselors did a great job monitoring and reminding students of safety protocols. And our participants understood the precautions and adjusted very well to our modified program.”

Some of the added precautions were: requesting participants to self-isolate prior to arrival on campus; single-occupancy housing on campus; restricted travel off campus; required isolation upon non-essential off-campus travel; required face coverings in all public spaces; body temperature monitoring; designated isolation rooms; and physical distancing guidelines.

“Our hybrid-program model allowed us to maintain safe distancing while still maintaining the engagement dynamic which consisted of participant social interaction and peer relationship development,” added Liddell. “We wanted to ensure that physical distancing did not assume social distancing. We believe we were able to accomplish that this year.”

The closing program was conducted across two ceremonies to account for physical distancing. Awards for most improved and exemplary academic performance were presented to six students in the program's computer science, mathematics, and chemistry courses.

Corporate sponsor BP joined with OMED to support the recognition of 35 students for outstanding academic performance, including 18 who earned a 4.0 GPA during the program.

“Coming into college, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” said Nathnael Aberra, a computer science major, ahead of the closing. “But Challenge has put my worries to rest. I feel great that I got the opportunity to give myself this head start at Tech.”

This year’s closing ceremonies also included the presentation of a new award on behalf of Tech's Center of Engineering Education and Diversity (CEED): the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) offered awards to five Challenge students eligible to receive an annual scholarship. “You are an impressive, proven, and resilient group," said Sybrina Atwaters, director of OMED and academic coordinator of Challenge. “During unprecedented times, this cohort has confronted every challenge placed before them, collectively earned over $30,000 in incentives for the upcoming Fall semester, and established a new Challenge academic record."

The 2020 program hosted participants from seven states with an ethnicity breakdown of 59% Black/African American, 32% Latinx, 4% Asian, and 4% two or more ethnicities. Student participants majored in more than a dozen areas of study.

This year's program was supported by corporate sponsors BP, Eaton, and Procter & Gamble.

To learn more about the Challenge program, visit omed.gatech.edu/programs/challenge.

This an annual event, which this year will take place on March 14^th at the Georgia Tech Student Center brings K-12 Hispanic/Latino students and their families from the Metro Atlanta area to Georgia Tech. The fair includes hands-on activities for the entire family, workshops, career exploration, and a college fair.

“Volunteering at GoSTEM events allows me to have a breath of fresh air and reminds me just how amazing the school I attend is… Showing students that they have the intelligence, skills, and ability to achieve each and every goal they have through GoSTEM has truly been a powerful experience.” ~ Georgia Tech undergraduate student in Computer Science

WHO: Everyone is welcome to volunteer for this event, especially bilingual Spanish speaking individuals.

WHERE: Georgia Tech Student Center

WHEN: Saturday, March 14, 2020
Shifts Available: 7:30am – 11:00 a.m OR 11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

WHY: Inspire the Next, Serve the Community, and Have Fun!

FREEBIES: All volunteers will receive a t-shirt and lunch is provided!

HOW TO SIGN UP: Visit  https://bit.ly/2SDpPsf

Sign Up to Create & Conduct a Hands-on Activity or talk about your major: https://bit.ly/3bMa61y

QUESTIONS: Amanda Smith at amanda.smith@ceismc.gatech.edu or Jorge Breton at jorge.breton@vpid.gatech.edu

“During the 2019 Hispanic Heritage Month at Georgia Tech, we will recognize the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United states,” said Toyya Pujol, a doctoral candidate in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, in her opening remarks referencing this year’s theme, Hispanic Americans: A History of Serving Our Nation. “Hispanic Heritage Month pays tributes to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our society.”

“I hope each one of you can see yourself reflected in me,” Marin said at the top of her remarks. “My life is no different than yours; I just get the tremendous honor of sharing it with you,” she continued. “My life is your life.”

The daughter of a janitor father and seamstress mother, Marin described her experiences moving to California from her family’s two-room home in Mexico City.

“I didn’t want to come here,” she said. “I was fourteen-and-a-half; what about my quinceañera?” she quipped to audience laughs.

Though she initially struggled in high school because she couldn’t speak English, her persistence and reliance on an “English diet” led her to graduate at the top of her senior class. She then enrolled in East Los Angeles Community College, completing an associate’s degree, followed by the completion of a bachelor’s degree at California State University, Los Angeles -- all over the course of seven years.

While in college, she also began working fulltime at City National Bank in Beverly Hills, initially as an assistant to the receptionist. Six years later, she was appointed as the bank’s assistant vice president.

Her career and enrollment in an MBA program came to a halt, however, after her first child, Eric, was born with Down syndrome in 1985. His condition launched Marin to become an advocate for Latino families with children with disabilities. She also founded Padres de Personas con Sindrome Down (Parents of Persons with Down Syndrome), which was later renamed FUERZA, meaning "strength."

In addition to her public advocacy work, Marin became politically involved.

She won a city council seat in Huntington Park, California, in 1994. She then served for a term as mayor, becoming the first Hispanic to hold the position in the city’s history. And, in April 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Marin for the post of U.S. Treasurer. She was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate four months later.

“If someone would have said that those things were going to happen, I wouldn’t have believed them," Marin said." But that’s how my life happened.”

During her two-year tenure, she championed the Treasury's financial literacy outreach program focusing on the more than 10 million Americans who did not have their own bank account. 

After a failed run in 2004 for the U.S. Senate – becoming the first Latina in California to run for a Senate seat – and serving in roles under the administration of then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, she published her memoir, Leading Between Two Worlds: Lessons from the First Mexican-Born Treasurer of the United States, in 2007.

At the conclusion of her lecture address, she shared three of her ‘Successful Seven’ values from the book which she says helped her gain successes both personally and professionally. “These are the three things I raised my kids with. They’ve very simple, but not always easy to do:”

Always do the right thing; always try your best; and always treat people the way you’d like to be treated.

“Look at me. I made it and so can you,” Marin concluded. “Know that whatever is for you, no matter how big your challenges are, no matter how difficult your obstacles are, you can overcome them. It is within you, but you have to believe.”

To view the 2019 Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture in its entirety, visit https://youtu.be/NPP0SUMNOXw. 

The Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture is a part of Georgia Tech’s Intercultural Lecture Series. To learn more, visit https://hispanicoffice.gatech.edu/HispanicHeritageMonthLecture.

The report from the 2017 Faculty and Staff Climate Assessment Surveys is now available from Institute Diversity and Academic Effectiveness at diversity.gatech.edu/ClimateAssessmentSurveys. In the report, longitudinal data from last year’s surveys were compared to the results from the 2013 Climate Assessment Surveys.

As Academic Effectiveness Assistant Director Joe Ludlum explained, “The content of the questions in the 2017 surveys remained unchanged from the 2013 surveys, which therefore allowed comparative analysis to track changes over time since the first surveys’ administration.”

The Climate Assessment Surveys assessed the lived experiences, perceptions, and satisfaction of faculty and staff with respect to the Strategic Plan’s aspiration to build “a culture of collegiality, close collaboration, global perspective, intercultural sensitivity and respect, and thoughtful interaction among a diverse community of scholars that includes all students, faculty, and staff.”

“The results of the surveys indicate significant progress on some important measures,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity. “For instance, there were positive gains over the past four years on faculty satisfaction with support from their chairs, and nearly 90 percent of staff respondents hold the opinions that they freely interact with colleagues across Georgia Tech and that the Institute is generally a comfortable and inclusive environment for them.”

“Despite the generally positive direction over four years, we have work to do. As another example, the level of agreement from staff respondents that adequate processes are in place to address grievances dropped by seven percent in 2017 in comparison to 2013,” added Ervin.

Following the evaluation of the faculty and staff surveys over the past year, all undergraduate and graduate students were invited to participate in the 2018 Student Climate Assessment Survey earlier this month. Results from this survey will be compared to the findings of the 2013 Student Climate Assessment Survey and released in 2019.

“Thank you to those who participated in the surveys as this feedback will help us better understand the lived experiences of faculty, staff, and students and inform Tech’s leadership about strategies to improve support for the campus community,” said Keona Lewis, program review and research manager for Institute Diversity. “Programs like the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program, Inclusive Leaders Academy, and Leading Women@Tech were launched, in part, after reviewing the findings from the 2013 survey.”

To learn more and read the reports from the 2013 and 2017 Climate Assessment Surveys, visit diversity.gatech.edu/ClimateAssessmentSurveys. 

“We are honored,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity and president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. “On the heels of a challenging year for our campus community, we remain steadfast in our commitment to an inclusive, safe, and healthy community on our path forward together as ‘One Georgia Tech.’”

Open to all colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, the award measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment in regard to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs, and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff.

Award applications are reviewed and evaluated by representatives of Potomac Publishing Inc., publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity, and the magazine’s editorial board members may have also been asked to assist with evaluating applications.

“Georgia Tech’s HEED Award application received our highest score to date,” said Keona Lewis, program review and research manager for Institute Diversity. “While we are grateful for the recognition, there is still work to do as evidenced by our recently released report from the 2017 Faculty and Staff Climate Assessment Surveys.”

Ninety-six higher education institutions, including Georgia Tech, received the HEED Award this year. They will be featured in the November 2018 and December 2018 issues of INSIGHT Into Diversity.

To learn more about the HEED Award, visit www.insightintodiversity.com/about-the-heed-award/. 

With support from Institute Diversity and the ADVANCE Program, this program brings together campus community members who individually and collectively advance their action, research, or teaching objectives while improving inclusivity on campus. The Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program is a bottom-up initiative tapping into the creativity and diversity of thought among our campus community to crowdsource ideas that create long-term culture change.

“The goals of the program are to cultivate a network of ambassadors who will advance a culture of inclusive excellence and to create an environment where people feel safe, comfortable, and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion at Georgia Tech,” said Beril Toktay, ADVANCE Professor in the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business, Brady Family Chair and faculty director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program.

Each applicant should submit an issue area or project idea to focus on as a potential Diversity and Inclusion Fellow. The program is seeking fellows who have been immersed in the topics of diversity and inclusion, as well as those interested in connecting these topics to different fields and perspectives.

All Georgia Tech faculty, post-doctoral fellows, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to apply. The Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program will run from January 15 to December 1, 2019. During this time, fellows are expected to:

• Complete an individual or group action, teaching, or research objective and share with the campus community; and
• Attend the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program meetings, including the program’s final poster expo and celebration.

“Our intention is that Diversity and Inclusion Fellows will benefit from this program by building lasting connections among participants and accelerating culture change at Georgia Tech,” said Catherine Ross, Harry West Professor and ADVANCE Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning and incoming co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program. 

The application deadline is October 19, 2018 at 5 p.m. To read the application instructions, visit diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgramApplicationInstructions, and to apply, visit https://goo.gl/forms/WM3OOdBB5ndTi3dB3.

To learn more about the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program, visit diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram. The program is one of three diversity and inclusion initiatives funded through a Strategic Planning Advisory Group proposal; the other two are the Diversity and Inclusion Councils and Transformative Narratives. 

This year’s Faces of Inclusive Excellence publication and video will recognize deserving faculty, staff, and students at the 10th Annual Diversity Symposium on September 5, 2018.

“The theme of this year’s Diversity Symposium is ‘Building Inclusive Communities: The Path Forward – Together,’ which will explore both the progress made and the challenges that remain in the interrelated areas of academics, health and well-being, and student and community life," said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity. “We encourage you to nominate faculty, staff, and students for Faces of Inclusive Excellence to honor their accomplishments, and we look forward to celebrating their successes at the Diversity Symposium as we all work together to continue building an inclusive community at Georgia Tech.”

Faces of Inclusive Excellence recognizes campus community members who have distinguished themselves in their research, teaching, and/or service by receiving special awards or recognitions during the past academic year.

Nominations, including self-nominations, may be made by all Georgia Tech faculty, staff, or students and will be accepted until June 29, 2018.

For more information and the nomination form, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/facesofinclusiveexcellence. To view last year's Faces of Inclusive Excellence video, visit https://youtu.be/8L9OLnHIMwY.

“If we’re going to talk about equity, then it needs to extend beyond the building,” said Atira Rochester, corporate relations manager for Institute Diversity. “The Kendeda Building presents a unique opportunity to connect the campus and greater Atlanta community with equity-centered sustainability programs and initiatives. That’s why we launched the Living Building Equity Champions initiative.”

Working with Institute Diversity’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, the Living Building Equity Champions (LBECs) are students charged with fully engaging in the development and realization of the equity component of The Kendeda Building.

The LBECs provide input in the design and development of The Kendeda Building; engage current students in The Kendeda Building’s equity, sustainability, and diversity efforts; and enhance the greater Atlanta community’s access to The Kendeda Building, particularly K-12 students.

Eleven undergraduate and graduate students have been selected as LBECs: Angelica Acevedo, Chaselyn Baca, John Butler III, Helen Chang, Simon Clopton, Tamera Flowers, Nataly Granados, Janay Jones, Lucy Kates, Amber Roberts, and Arionna Russell.

Keona Lewis, program review and research manager for Institute Diversity, said, “As equity practitioners, we are often faced with the challenges of bringing more voices to the table as it relates to sustainability. It was exciting for us to be able to bring a diverse group of passionate students to the table to inform The Kendeda Building project.”

Lewis and Rochester represent Institute Diversity on The Kendeda Building equity working group. They proposed the LBECs initiative as a way to engage more students, particularly those from underrepresented communities, in equity and sustainability efforts.

Last fall, the LBECs focused on their own understanding of The Kendeda Building and the role of equity within this project. They also participated in workshops and other learning opportunities to increase their knowledge of equity and sustainability. In Spring 2018, the LBECs connected with other Kendeda Building projects, visited the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and participated in outreach efforts, including OMED’s African American Male Initiative Academic Empowerment Fair and Expo, Serve-Learn-Sustain’s Community Open House, and GoSTEM’s Latino College and STEM Fair.

“Being a LBEC opened my eyes to the term ‘equity’ itself,” said Kates. “Because of this experience, I am more aware of people’s very different backgrounds, and it is important to understand that even if a design shows equality, it doesn’t mean that it is equitable in reaching all users.”

Another LBEC project was a student-produced video to explain the initiative, which can be viewed at https://youtu.be/T-qIJoM9iHo.

Acevedo added, “I hope that The Kendeda Building can be a place where people of all backgrounds feel included and productive. I would like this education and research facility to serve as an example for how we can prioritize equity in an everyday, working environment.”

“The LBECs will continue to develop and refine our equity work beyond this academic year,” said Clopton. “For instance, we plan to conduct surveys and interviews to evaluate the interplay among sustainable buildings, sustainable education, and underrepresented groups. This data will be used to tailor our work to create positive change for the campus and greater Atlanta communities.”

The 2018-19 LBEC application period will open this summer. For more information, contact Lewis at keona.lewis@vpid.gatech.edu or Rochester at atira.rochester@gatech.edu.

The LBECs pilot project is supported by the Academic and Research Council and Serve-Learn-Sustain. To learn more, visit www.csdi.gatech.edu/living-building-equity-champions. 

Each year, the Diversity Champion Awards recognize those who demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Georgia Tech community. They will be honored at the 10^th Annual Diversity Symposium Awards Luncheon on September 5, 2018.

“This year’s Diversity Symposium theme is ‘Building Inclusive Communities: The Path Forward,’ and the awards will be given to campus community members who demonstrate leadership in building an inclusive community and advancing a culture of inclusive excellence,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity.

Award recipients will have demonstrated one or more of the following within the last 10 years:

• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Leadership in building an inclusive campus community and advancing a culture of inclusive excellence.
• Organized, conducted, and/or supported programs, events, and activities that promote cross-cultural understanding, respect, and inclusion of diverse individuals and groups.

Nominations will be accepted until June 1, 2018. For more information and the online nomination form, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/diversitychampionawards. 

“As we celebrated the 24^th anniversary of this award, we marked a milestone in recent years as more than 1,400 underrepresented students were academically eligible to receive a Tower Award in 2018,” said Denise Ocasio, assistant director for OMED. “This is a significant testament to our students’ scholastic abilities, work ethic, and commitment to excellence.”

Award categories included Ph.D. Awards, Master’s Awards (graduating GPA of 3.5 or higher), Graduating Senior Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher), Sustained Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher), Yearly Awards (GPA of 3.15 or higher over the past three semesters), and First-Year Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher). Within each award category, except the Ph.D. and Master’s Awards, sub-categories included Bronze (GPA of 3.15-3.49), Silver (GPA of 3.50-3.94), and Gold (GPA of 3.95 or higher).

Two special honors were also presented: the Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization (GTBAO) Unsung Hero Award and OMED Student Mentor Award. Alexander Pegues, undergraduate student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, received the GTBAO Unsung Hero Award, and Charles Van-Hein Sackey, undergraduate student in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was honored with the OMED Student Mentor Award. Both also received a 2018 Tower Award.

Pegues remarked, “The GTBAO Unsung Hero Award is quite special. When I accepted this award, it was not just for me but for all of the people who are working in the background to organize events and set ideas in motion to increase the social well-being at our institution.”

“This award recognition is a tribute to how much I have learned from each of my outstanding mentees within and outside of OMED,” said Van-Hein Sackey. “OMED has been a haven for academic excellence and a great support system for students like me. I will always be grateful to OMED for giving me that exposure and pushing me to excel in all facets of my life at Georgia Tech.”

Part of Institute Diversity’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion (CSDI), OMED is supported by more than 25 corporate partners and sponsors who attended and provided raffle giveaways at the Tower Awards. Corporate partners include 3M, BP, John Deere, Procter & Gamble, and Southwire.

CSDI Executive Director S. Gordon Moore Jr. concluded, “The aspirations in the Institute’s strategic plan can only be truly realized if we foster a fluid pipeline of talented, innovative, strategic, engaged, and compassionate students. At the Tower Awards, we honor the students who meet these criteria and walk the talk, and we applaud their hard work, persistence, and determination.”

To learn more about the Tower Awards, visit www.omed.gatech.edu.

According to Georgia Tech’s Fifth Annual Black History Month Lecture Keynote Speaker Angela Rye, this is the wrong ask.

“In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Where Do We Go from Here?’ speech, he discussed power, and he defined power as the ability to achieve purpose,” said Rye. “When you can’t achieve your purpose, does it matter if you are dealt with fairly?”

“If you’re released from a form of bondage, and you’re not equipped to fully engage in society in a meaningful way, your justice means nothing. Society can treat you fairly, but if you don’t have the tools to achieve your purpose, or power, you’re going to fail. Black activists have been asking for justice and equality, but what we need is equity and power.”

The theme of this year’s Black History Month Lecture was “Giving Voice to Justice for 50 Years.” “The theme was selected to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King and the founding of AASU at Georgia Tech,” explained Leah Miller, president of the African American Student Union (AASU) and undergraduate student in the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business. “Moreover, 2018 is seeing a continuation of the #MeToo movement in the ongoing struggle for gender equity.”

Rye, a national political strategist and commentator, discussed the recent controversies surrounding pervasive sexual harassment, the unmasking of male privilege, and the impact of the #MeToo movement through the lens of Black History Month. As a central narrative, Rye repeatedly referenced “Ain’t I a Woman?,” a powerful speech delivered by Sojourner Truth at the Women’s Rights Convention in 1851.

“I wonder what Sojourner would say today given our current discord and state of the struggle. Not just for women’s rights but for black women’s rights,” reflected Rye. “When I think of the many black women throughout history who have blazed trails, opened doors, persisted, and resisted, I pull from their strength. I get to stand on their shoulders. And ain’t I a woman?”

In addition to #MeToo, Rye talked about the #StayWoke movement. “We can’t afford to talk about ‘Stay Woke’ anymore; we have to ‘Work Woke.’ We have to use our gifts to truly change our path forward. Black History Month is about honoring the legacy of people who blazed trails for us. They were working woke.”

Institute Diversity Vice President Archie Ervin concluded the lecture by stating that he was inspired by the references to “Ain’t I a Woman.” “Today’s lecture was an uplifting experience, and at Georgia Tech, we are honored to continue the conversation on April 5 by unveiling a sculpture of Rosa Parks in one of our most cherished locations, Harrison Square.”

To view the Black History Month Lecture in its entirety, visit https://youtu.be/n_W4WzIx9dw.

Georgia Tech’s Black History Month Lecture was sponsored by Institute Diversity and AASU. To learn more, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/2018-black-history-month-lecture. 

Earlier this month, Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement (SDIE) hosted the inaugural Transformative Narratives Storytelling Crawl, an immersive, six-event series featuring 51 stories, four poems, and two monologues from 26 national, local, and Georgia Tech storytellers and six musicians over two days.

“Transformative Narratives was launched as a major storytelling initiative at Georgia Tech because we want to be among the best at modeling and achieving inclusive excellence,” said Cheryl D. Cofield, director of inclusion and engagement and curator of the initiative. “The reciprocal relationship between storytellers and story listeners sparks connection among people and the opportunity for ‘being with’ and understanding others.”

The storytelling crawl elicited strong reactions from attendees. “It was cathartic to hear the stories of pain, hope, and triumph from my colleagues and invited guests. While we may be in a different time, stage, or season in life, we can all persevere and help one another grow by taking the time to listen and truly care about what others have experienced,” remarked Laura Pusateri, assistant director of Institute special events and protocol for Institute Communications.

Aisha Oliver-Staley, executive director for Affiliated Organizations, found it an enriching experience. “I left inspired by stories of lived experiences that connect all of us beyond our identifiable differences.”

Through the Transformative Narratives initiative, SDIE has curated 24 artistically embellished photographic portraits as a traveling exhibit, currently hosted by the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business, and 17 audio recordings that capture the rich diversity of the campus community. The curated sets of photographic portraits and audio recordings are maintained in the growing digital story library.

Now, SDIE is seeking stories from faculty, staff, and students as part of Transformative Narratives, which is endorsed by the Strategic Plan Advisory Group. Submitted stories may be selected to become part of the Institute’s digital story library and showcased in a future exhibit. To participate, campus community members can submit 55-word story summaries at www.sdie.gatech.edu/share-your-story.

“The initiative aligns well with growing the capacity of our faculty, staff, and students to increase their intercultural competence and interpersonal savvy through the sharing of their identities, experiences, and perspectives,” Cofield noted.

Pearl Alexander, executive director for diversity, inclusion, and engagement and co-producer of Transformative Narratives, credits Cofield’s leadership as well as input from the steering committee with the initiative’s success to date. “We are creating the spaces and means for our campus community to excavate and express their personal stories,” she said. “I’m extremely proud of Cheryl’s vision, the work of the committee, and the sponsorship that we’ve been afforded to make this initiative happen.”

Visit www.sdie.gatech.edu/transformative-narratives to learn more, share your story, or register to attend an upcoming storytelling workshop. 

“During this pivotal time, it seems as if we are at the height of the struggle toward becoming an inclusive society, and our journey continues during this evolution toward becoming a truly just and beloved community,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity.

During Georgia Tech’s Seventh Annual MLK Lecture, “Actualizing the Dream: The Future of Nonviolent Political Protest,” Joy-Ann Reid, national correspondent for MSNBC, discussed King’s legacy and his vision of a beloved community, achieved through nonviolent principles.

“I sometimes object to the ‘postcardization’ of Dr. King,” said Reid. “During these anniversaries, it is easier to remember the beautiful words that he said and to forget the more complicated person that he was. If Dr. King were alive today, he wouldn’t be the man who is saying that we can get to the table of brotherhood; he would be agitating for the change that he was trying to create.”

After discussing the complexities of American history, including the Poor People’s Campaign, King’s last days, and the designation of a federal holiday honoring him, Reid shifted her focus to today’s national climate. “The wealth gap is only getting worse, and the political power gap is just as wide. The country has a long way to go to be a more perfect union.” 

As Reid stated, the median black family has $1,700 in wealth, and the median Latino family has $2,000 in wealth – total assets minus total debt – which has declined over the past three decades. Meanwhile, white median household wealth is significantly higher – $116,800 – up from $102,000 30 years ago.¹

“Anyone who wants to advocate for economic justice needs to understand that you need to fight for racial justice as a unique, special, and separate thing. Then, you need to fight for economic justice as a reparative, multi-community, and interdenominational thing,” concluded Reid. “Otherwise, America is a tribal country, and all the tribes will fight for whatever limited resources there are.”

Following the lecture, Allen Hyde, assistant professor in the School of History and Sociology, remarked, “It is important to understand the complexity of Dr. King and American history, so we can understand the connections between racial justice and economic justice in both the past and today’s society.”

“Despite America’s tribal nature, we can come together by developing Dr. King’s dangerous unselfishness, particularly in today’s narcissistic era, as the need for economic justice cuts across everything,” said John Jordan, alumnus of Morehouse College and managing partner for Fight for Light Inc.

To view the MLK Lecture in its entirety, visit https://youtu.be/LF9PiJpzW2U.

Georgia Tech’s MLK Lecture is sponsored by Institute Diversity, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Office of Government and Community Relations, and Office of Student Diversity Programs. To learn more about the MLK Lecture, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/mlk-celebration.

¹ Josh Hoxie, “Blacks and Latinos Will Be Broke in a Few Decades,” FORTUNE, (September 19, 2017). 

For 27 years, Georgia Tech’s Focus Program has brought high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds to campus. The annual graduate recruitment weekend is held during the observance and celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

This month, 192 underrepresented minority students and postdocs attended, representing 81 colleges and universities from 32 states and four countries.

“Our Latinx applications to the Focus Program increased this year, and our attendance of Focus Scholars from Puerto Rico almost doubled compared to 2017,” said Sybrina Atwaters, assistant director for outreach initiatives at OMED: Educational Services, a unit of Institute Diversity’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion.

The three-day program includes opening and closing dinners; President’s Dinner; campus tours; department and lab visits; and panel discussions on graduate admissions, fellowships, scholarships, mentoring, and student and alumni experiences.

S. Gordon Moore Jr., the Center’s executive director, told Focus Program participants during the President’s Dinner, “Georgia Tech seeks excellence. You are not here as an underrepresented minority; you are here because you are one of the best students in the country.”

Approximately 47 percent of the 2018 Focus Program participants, who will graduate this May, have applied to graduate programs at Georgia Tech, and 37 percent received application fee waivers. Compared to last year, participant applications to Georgia Tech’s graduate programs have increased 17 percent.

“You have to believe in yourself. The Focus Program helped everyone believe that we could earn graduate degrees,” remarked Gabriela Lopez, an undergraduate student at New York University.

Since its inception, more than 3,000 students from a wide array of colleges and universities have participated in the program. Some 300 former Focus Scholars are among the Georgia Tech alumni who have earned master’s and doctoral degrees. Focus Scholars is a component of the program designed to inform juniors and seniors about the benefits of earning an advanced degree. Additionally, numerous Focus Fellows are members of Georgia Tech’s engineering faculty. Focus Fellows encourages diverse doctoral students to consider an academic career.

“The program’s level of success is due to the support of the Institute’s administration, faculty, staff, and students – with generous support from corporate sponsors like Intel,” added Atwaters.

Currently, Georgia Tech awards more doctoral degrees in engineering to all racial/ethnic minority students,¹ and more undergraduate degrees in engineering to women,² than any other school. 

To learn more about the Focus Program, visit www.focus.gatech.edu.

¹ Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

² American Society for Engineering Education

Georgia Tech already had such a tool. But at the time, it wasn’t being used for student-related matters. Today, the EthicsPoint reporting system is set up to address a broader array of concerns.

Melissa Hall, an associate director in the Department of Internal Auditing, said that the act of expanding the reporting categories had an additional benefit: It initiated a thorough review of all the information contained on the site, as well as a process for keeping it up to date. 

“Going forward, it’s something we’re going to review every two years,” Hall said. 

Anyone with a concern such as unsafe working conditions, academic misconduct, or abuse are encouraged to access the EthicsPoint system. When a report is submitted, personnel within the responsible unit are notified by email to investigate the claims. Alleged financial improprieties are referred to Internal Auditing, for example, just as allegations of discrimination are directed to staff in Institute Diversity. The University System’s Board of Regents is also alerted and has oversight for all filed reports. 

“We acknowledge receipt [of a complaint] within 48 hours, so the submitter knows there is an awareness of their report,” Hall said. 

Once a user submits a report, they receive unique login credentials that enable them to monitor status updates, upload supporting documentation, or respond to any follow-up questions the investigator may have.

Hall said she’s aware the primary reluctance people have when reporting is whether or not there will be anonymity in the process. In response, she pointed out that EthicsPoint is a third-party system — which keeps the reporter’s identification secure — and that the Institute’s focus is ensuring that staff, faculty, and students are operating within the boundaries of ethical behavior. 

“Our interest is investigating the claims and taking corrective action if necessary, not trying to identify the source of the information,” she said.

The first cohort of fellows included Jennifer Beveridge, Brienné Coates, Santanu Dey, Lana Ferreira, Michelle Gaines, Stephanie Gillespie, Tia Jackson-Truitt, Ronald Johnson, Timothy Lieuwen, Susannah McFaul, Jerrold Mobley, Lauren Neefe, Dionne Nickerson, Irina Nikivincze, Yelena Rivera-Vale, Sebastian Ruf, Calvin Runnels, Hussein Sayani, Jacquelyn Strickland, and William Todd.

“Through this program, we wanted to create a grassroots movement that would accelerate cultural change at Georgia Tech,” said Magnus Egerstedt, professor and Julian T. Hightower Chair in Systems and Controls in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, executive director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program.

According to the Harvard Business Review, a number of organizations experienced consistently positive results with diversity and inclusion programs that apply three basic principles: engage ambassadors in solving the problem, expose them to people from different groups, and encourage social accountability for change.¹

With support from Institute Diversity, the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program was launched last year to bring together faculty, staff, and students who individually and collectively advance their action, research, or teaching objectives while improving inclusivity on campus.

The goals of the program are to cultivate a network of ambassadors who will advance a culture of inclusive excellence and create an environment where people feel safe, comfortable, and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion at Georgia Tech.

“After selecting the first cohort from their submitted proposals, the fellows were grouped into teams, and each team had a leader or co-leaders,” remarked Beril Toktay, ADVANCE Professor in the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business, Brady Family Chair and faculty director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program. “This cohort represented an excellent cross-section of the Institute. We are proud of the authenticity of this program thanks to the unique perspecties of the fellows.”

Projects from the first cohort included podcast stories, blogs, icebreakers, online training modules, panel discussions, and circus arts performances focusing on the dimensions and intersectionalities of diversity, including race, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, and disability. To learn more about the fellows’ projects, visit
www.diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram/2017ProjectSpotlights.

Yelena Rivera-Vale, one of the fellows and TV and web operations coordinator for the Georgia Tech Cable Network, described her team’s project: “Accent Stories is a series of podcasts where campus community members share their personal recollections and perspectives related to the way they speak. The way one speaks tells a story, and accents can be related to bias. After hearing these stories, it is our hope that listeners will think about accents in a different way.”

The second cohort of 21 faculty, staff, and students was recently selected for the 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program. Following an application period last fall, this year’s fellows will be expected to:

• Complete an individual action, teaching, or research objective and share with the campus community;
• Contribute to a group project, to be determined by the fellows, that will raise the profile of the diversity and inclusion theme on campus or make a campus-wide contribution; and
• Attend the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program meetings.

“Institute Diversity is pleased to support the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program, which was launched after a Strategic Plan Advisory Group proposal was submitted. We applaud the first and second cohorts who are making a difference and transforming the culture through modeling inclusive excellence,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity.

To learn more about the program, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram.

^{1 Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, “Why Diversity Programs Fail,” Harvard Business Review (July-August 2016).}

The findings from the 2017 Climate Assessment Surveys will provide longitudinal data that will be analyzed and compared to the results from the Institute’s 2013 Climate Assessment Surveys.

“The climate assessment survey comparisons will help us measure progress toward achieving the goals in our strategic plan and inform the Institute’s leadership about our strengths and opportunities to improve efforts with supporting a culture of collegiality, close collaboration, and professional development,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity.

Beginning the week of November 13, 2017, faculty and staff will receive an email that includes a link to their respective online survey. The survey should take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and participation is completely voluntary.

Students will receive a climate assessment survey email during spring semester 2018.

“On behalf of Institute Diversity and Academic Effectiveness, thank you for your time to complete this survey, as your feedback is greatly valued,” added Ervin.

Contact Academic Effectiveness at 404.385.1292 or survey@oars.gatech.edu with any questions. To read the 2013 Climate Assessment Survey findings, visit http://b.gatech.edu/17c2DzK.

“Fifteen years later, Hispanics and Latinos have become one of the fastest growing student groups at the Institute. This year, for instance, applications from Hispanic and Latino incoming freshmen increased by 7.8 percent,” said Jorge Breton, director of Institute Diversity’s Office of Hispanic Initiatives (OHI), which is part of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion. “The Goizueta Foundation Scholarships and Fellowships are one of several programs and initiatives at Georgia Tech that provide pathways to success for our community.”

Since its inception, more than 270 Hispanic and Latino students have been supported by The Goizueta Foundation Scholarships and Fellowships. For this academic year, 18 scholars and eight fellows were selected, the highest number of new awardees to date.  

The Goizueta Foundation Scholarships provide four-year or eight-term renewable, merit- and need-based scholarships for full-time undergraduate students. The Goizueta Foundation Fellowships provide renewable, merit-based fellowships with a stipend of $4,000 for 12 months of full-time enrollment for doctoral students.

Charlene Rincón, a Ph.D. graduate of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, recalled, “I had the great opportunity of being a Goizueta Fellow for four years, and during those years, the fellowship not only provided me with economic assistance, but it also allowed me to meet and interact with people from different disciplines and backgrounds, which had a long-lasting impact in my life.” 

Scholars and fellows participate in various projects and activities to assist in the recruitment, retention, and outreach of Hispanic and Latino students at Georgia Tech. These include assisting with the Focus graduate recruitment program, interacting with distinguished faculty, participating in events such as GoSTEM’s Latino STEM Education Day and Latino College and STEM Fair, and hosting campus visits by middle and high school students to Georgia Tech, among others.

“I am fortunate to participate in events that help young Hispanics see their potential and engage in STEM fields,” said Natalia Wauldron, recipient of The Goizueta Foundation Scholarship and undergraduate student in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “These events are crucial to the betterment of our society.”

The Goizueta Foundation Fellow Kevin Lanza, a doctoral student in the School of City and Regional Planning, remarked, “After attending Goizueta luncheons and planning meetings for Hispanic Heritage Month, I now walk around Georgia Tech knowing that I have a strong, campus-wide support system.”

Along with Breton, several distinguished faculty members serve as role models and mentors to The Goizueta Foundation Scholars and Fellows and assist OHI in its efforts to recruit, retain, and promote the success of students and faculty of Hispanic and Latino origin. Currently, Rosario Gerhardt, professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, serves as The Goizueta Foundation Faculty Chair, and William J. Koros, professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, serves as the Roberto C. Goizueta Chair for Excellence in Chemical Engineering. Georgia Tech’s next The Goizueta Foundation Junior Faculty Rotating Chair will be selected and announced during this academic year.

Georgia Tech is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top schools for awarding bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in STEM fields to Hispanics and Latinos (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education). 

To learn more about OHI and The Goizueta Foundation Scholarships and Fellowships at Georgia Tech, visit www.hispanicoffice.gatech.edu. 

The magazine’s cover profile of CEO Satya Nadella centers on the culture of empathy and inclusion he has cultivated since taking the reins of Microsoft three years ago. In the old days, the article says, employees were know-it-alls. Nadella is working to make them learn-it-alls, and that requires strengthening interpersonal competencies.

“You have to be able to say, ‘Where is this person coming from?’ Nadella says. ‘What makes them tick? Why are they excited or frustrated by something that’s happening?’”

It’s exactly that kind of thinking that’s at the heart of a remarkable new initiative taking shape within Georgia Tech’s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. Partnering with the Vice President for Institute Diversity’s Office at Georgia Tech, the initiative hopes to change the ways student’s think before they go on to their careers.

The department announced this summer it had been awarded a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to do something unheard of in engineering education: prepare students to shape and lead teams of people who have different backgrounds and perspectives.

The logic behind the initiative is simple. The big problems facing the world are so complex, they can only be solved by teams. A number of studies show the highest-performing teams not only have people of varied cultures and influences — these different members are able to connect with each other. Diversity is a start; harnessing diversity is the key.

By infusing such awareness among student teams in classrooms and labs, the thinking goes, the department will produce graduates so well equipped to collaborate, they’ll ultimately transform the engineering workplace.

“I like to think of it as creating situations in teams where people feel both respected and connected,” says Joe LeDoux, the department’s associate chair for undergraduate learning. “We all need to feel like we’re valued as individuals, for who we are. But just as important is feeling like we belong.”

The initiative is part cultural transformation and part scientific research. The grant comes from NSF’s “REvolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments” program, which supports “groundbreaking, scalable and sustainable changes in undergraduate education.”

An obvious question is, why the Coulter Department? The department itself is already a model of fusion: Since its founding 20 years ago, it’s been the nation’s only academic engineering enterprise comprised of both a public and private university (Georgia Tech and Emory). In 2013, the state Board of Regents recognized the department for its teaching innovation. And a “climate study” conducted last year revealed favorable perceptions from students on matters of diversity and acceptance.

“Yet, I hear anecdotally all the time that faculty at Georgia Tech witness interpersonal issues on teams of students,” says Wendy Newstetter, the College of Engineering’s assistant dean for educational innovation. “There are conflicts that go on in undergraduate teams. For example, female members are sometimes given writing tasks, rather than technical work. I don’t think it always means that boys on teams consciously say, ‘We’re going to give these jobs to the girls.’ But it happens.”

Julie Ancis, associate vice president for Institute Diversity, who has studied such attitudes and behaviors over a 30-year career, agrees. “Some biases affect our judgments, actions and decisions unconsciously,” says Ancis, Tech’s associate vice president for diversity. “These implicit biases differ from the more conscious biases that people may choose to conceal. They’re automatic reactions to people and events.

Ancis – who, along with Paul Benkeser, senior associate chair of the Coulter Department, holds faculty workshops on the issue – points to a number of examples in academe. Letters of recommendation written for female students and faculty tend to hedge on achievements, compared to the descriptors in letters written for men. Students of color often report feeling marginalized in classroom and lab work. “They may be perceived as less capable by others, which impacts how they are treated, or they may be picked last,” Ancis says. “Their input is not sought out, or they say they don’t feel included in a group or team.”

How the new Coulter Department and Institute Diversity initiative will peel back bias, interpersonal conflicts and other issues affecting team performance stems from a well-considered plan. The 15-page grant application to NSF presents organizational change theories and frameworks – the kind of social science exploration not typically seen around engineering departments.

The thrust of the approach is independence and collaboration. Faculty, staff and industry representatives, guided by learning specialists, will work in “incubator” teams to engineer strategies and tactics for student groups in classrooms and labs. Their approach is not prescriptive – each team develops its own interventions, which are tried, then refined. Outside of this effort are a host of other activities, such as the creation of a “Faculty Learning Community,” in which faculty collectively explore approaches that work.

By addressing student pairings, or dyads, as well as larger groups, the plan creates an architecture that ultimately will influence the culture of the department. Five years of this kind of activity is expected to produce knowledge that will then be shared across Georgia Tech and exported to other universities around the country.

“It’s essential that we create engineers in the workforce who understand what inclusion is and can help promote it,” Newstetter says. “We need to be graduating those people.”

“There is such a thing as an ‘inclusion dividend,’ and that’s really at the heart of what we’re doing,” says Le Doux. “The inclusion dividend is the positive impact that high-functioning teams make, not just because they’re diverse, but because they’re inclusive.”

To appreciate the distinction, he points to a 2015 talk from consultant Verna Myers. “She said, it’s the difference between being invited to a dance — and being asked to dance,” Le Doux says. “Who among us doesn’t want to be asked to dance?”

AT-A-GLANCE

The Wallace H. Coulter Department ’s RED Grant

$2 million from the National Science Foundation

Five-year program to prepare students to shape and lead teams of people who have different backgrounds and perspectives

Three-part effort:

1. Create “incubator” squads of faculty, students, industry reps and learning specialists to invent classroom and lab practices that equip students to shape and optimize diverse teams
2. Hold ongoing dialogues to exchange ideas and share experiences on strengthening interpersonal competencies
3. Take actions to apply what’s learned to transform department culture

For More Information:

Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory

www.bme.gatech.edu

Office of Institute Diversity

diversity.gatech.edu

Implicit Bias Workshops

advance.gatech.edu/implicit-bias-workshops

With support from Institute Diversity, this program brings together campus community members who individually and collectively advance their action, research, or teaching objectives while improving inclusivity on campus. The Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program is a bottom-up initiative tapping into the creativity and diversity of thought among our campus community to crowdsource ideas that create long-term culture change.

“The goals of the program are to cultivate a network of ambassadors who will advance a culture of inclusive excellence and to create an environment where people feel safe, comfortable, and empowered to discuss diversity and inclusion at Georgia Tech,” said Beril Toktay, ADVANCE Professor in the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business, Brady Family Chair and faculty director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program.

Each applicant should submit an issue area or project idea to focus on as a potential Diversity and Inclusion Fellow. The program is seeking fellows who have been immersed in the topics of diversity and inclusion as well as those who are interested in connecting these topics to different fields and perspectives.

All Georgia Tech faculty, post-doctoral fellows, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to apply. The Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program will run from January 15 to December 1, 2018, and during this time, fellows are expected to:

• Complete an individual or group action, teaching, or research objective and share with the campus community; and
• Attend the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program meetings.

“The bottom-up nature of this program recognizes the importance of ensuring that the Institute leverages the thoughts and actions of each individual in promoting diversity and inclusion,” remarked Magnus Egerstedt, professor and Julian T. Hightower Chair in Systems and Controls in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, executive director of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, and co-director of the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program.

The application deadline is October 20, 2017 at 5 p.m. To read the application instructions, click here, and to apply, visit https://goo.gl/forms/NSsxCjy8FSwB0Yyd2.

To learn more about the Diversity and Inclusion Fellows Program, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/DIFellowsProgram. The program is one of three diversity and inclusion initiatives funded through a SPAG proposal; the other two are the Diversity and Inclusion Councils and Transformative Narratives. 

In light of this year’s theme, “Building Inclusive Communities,” the Diversity Symposium featured a variety of lectures, panels, and performances that explored the impact and implications of race and class on individual success and community engagement in higher education institutions.

The morning sessions featured an opening keynote from John Quiñones, author, broadcast journalist, and host and creator of What Would You Do?, and panel discussions on race, class, and bias.

Quiñones shared his inspiring journey from migrant farm work and poverty to more than 30 years at ABC News and the anchor desk at 20/20 and Primetime. “When journalism is done right, stories can shed light on injustice,” he said. “Peter Jennings once told me to talk to the moved and the shaken – not the movers and the shakers.”

After the morning sessions, the Diversity Symposium awards luncheon included Diversity Champion Awards and Faces of Inclusive Excellence presentations and an artistic performance that addressed issues of race in contemporary society.

Four Diversity Champion Award winners were honored for advancing equity at the Institute, particularly at the intersections of race and class. This year’s winners are Anne Pollock (faculty), Jocelyn Thomas (staff), Jennifer Salcedo (student), and the Center for Engineering Education and Diversity (CEED) (unit). To view the 2017 Diversity Champion Awards video, visit https://youtu.be/NrK61wCwIzY.

“The Diversity Champion Award means so much to me, everyone within our office, and the students we serve. The recognition shows that not only do you see us, but you accept us, and value what we do,” remarked Felicia Benton-Johnson, assistant dean and director for CEED.

Sixty-five honorees were featured in this year’s Faces of Inclusive Excellence publication, which was distributed at the Diversity Symposium. The publication recognized a diverse group of faculty, staff, and students who are committed to advancing a culture of inclusive excellence at Georgia Tech and who have distinguished themselves in their research, teaching, and/or service. To view the 2017 Faces of Inclusive Excellence video, visit https://youtu.be/8L9OLnHIMwY.

Following the awards and recognition presentations, Dahlak Brathwaite, writer and performer of Spiritrials, delivered a powerful performance on race and the criminal justice system. To view his performance, visit www.bit.ly/2xiQQr4.

“The last five years have been particularly challenging on college campuses as we have grappled with issues of free speech, political ideologies, race, gender identities, access, and disability,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity. “I want to thank the faculty, staff, and students who attended and contributed to the discussions during this year’s Diversity Symposium. These conversations are important to our journey toward becoming the kind of community that we want to be.”

To learn more about the Diversity Symposium, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/diversitysymposium.

“The HEED Award, open to all colleges and universities across the country, measures an institution’s level of achievement and intensity of commitment in regard to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus through initiatives, programs, and outreach; student recruitment, retention, and completion; and hiring practices for faculty and staff,” said Holly Mendelson, co-publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

Eighty higher education institutions, including Georgia Tech, received the HEED Award this year, and these institutions will be featured in the November 2017 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.

“We are honored to receive the HEED Award for four consecutive years,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity and president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. “Following a landmark year for the Institute, Georgia Tech’s HEED Award application received our highest score to date from INSIGHT Into Diversity. We remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering a safe, inclusive, and welcoming environment, particularly in this time of uncertainty in the U.S.”

To learn more about the HEED Award, visit www.insightintodiversity.com/about-the-heed-award/.

For nearly four decades, OMED: Educational Services has offered Challenge, a summer academic preparation program, to help prepare incoming freshmen for a successful college career — academically, professionally, and socially.

This summer, the Challenge program welcomed one of its largest cohorts representing 23 different majors to Georgia Tech. Fifty-four percent were women — the highest percentage since the program’s inception — and 68 percent were black.

“The Institute’s Black Student Experience Task Force recently recommended expanding Challenge to 175 underrepresented minority and women students per program over the next three years,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity. “The growth of this year’s cohort is a strategic response to those recommendations.” Among the 137 black students who were considered eligible for Challenge, 41 percent participated in the program. 

“To successfully and sustainably grow Challenge, OMED enhanced the program’s academic focus and structure to attract more high-performing students, and increased corporate and institutional funding and alumni sponsorship to provide fee waivers,” explained Sybrina Atwaters, assistant director of outreach initiatives for OMED and director of the program. “It was remarkable to see the caliber of this year’s cohort who voluntarily chose to participate in this intensive program before fall semester.”

Over five weeks, participants were immersed in the Georgia Tech environment, living in a first-year dorm, taking classes, and participating in activities like whitewater rafting and mental health and well-being workshops. Individually, each student logged 4,500 in-class minutes of computer science, calculus, and chemistry; 1,560 in-class minutes of interpersonal development training; and 1,560 minutes of corporate engagement and professional development training.

“I’m significantly more prepared for fall semester,” undergraduate Alexander Bustos told the audience at the Challenge closing banquet on July 27. “It all comes down to happiness, and I’m a happier person from this experience.”

Last year, the average fall first semester GPA of Challenge participants was 3.26 compared to the 3.17 GPA of non-Challenge participants.

“I am so proud of my students, and it recharged me to see their enthusiasm this summer,” reflected Ta Nycia Wooden, one of the Challenge Counselors and an undergraduate student in the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business. Twenty Challenge Counselors served as role models and peer mentors to incoming freshmen during the program.

The Challenge program is supported by the following corporate partners and sponsors: 3M, Bechtel, BP, Eaton, ExxonMobil, GE Aviation, John Deere, Procter & Gamble, and Southwire.

To learn more about Challenge, visit www.omed.gatech.edu.

¹ “Summer Bridge Programs,” WWC Intervention Report by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (July 2016).

Each year, the Faces of Inclusive Excellence publication and video are featured at the Diversity Symposium Awards Luncheon. In addition to the Diversity Champion Awards, this year’s Faces of Inclusive Excellence publication and video will recognize deserving faculty, staff, and students at the Diversity Symposium Awards Luncheon on September 6, 2017.

Faces of Inclusive Excellence recognizes campus community members who have distinguished themselves in their research, teaching, and/or service by receiving special awards or recognitions during the past academic year.

“We encourage you to nominate faculty, staff, and students for the Faces of Inclusive Excellence to honor our diverse community of students, faculty, and staff whose accomplishments consistently exemplify inclusive excellence,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity.

Nominations, including self-nominations, may be made by all Georgia Tech faculty, staff, or students. Nominations will be accepted until June 30, 2017.

For more information and the nomination form, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/facesofinclusiveexcellence.

The Diversity Champion Awards recognize faculty, staff, students, and units who significantly demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Georgia Tech community. They will be selected and recognized at the Ninth Annual Diversity Symposium Awards Luncheon on September 6, 2017.

“This year’s Diversity Symposium theme is ‘Building Inclusive Campus Communities,’ and the Diversity Champion Awards will be given to campus community members who are advancing equity at the Institute, particularly at the intersections of race and class,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity.

Award recipients will have demonstrated one or more of the following within the last three years:

• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly at the intersections of race and class.
• Leadership in building an inclusive campus community.
• Behavior that illustrates commitment to the inclusion of persons within the Institute who represent the diversity of the Georgia Tech community.
• Organized, conducted, and/or supported events and activities that promote cross-cultural understanding, respect, and inclusion of diverse individuals and groups.

Nominations will be accepted until May 26, 2017. For more information and the online nomination form, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/diversitychampionawards.

For 23 years, the Tower Awards have celebrated the academic achievements of underrepresented students at Georgia Tech. Of the more than 1,200 students eligible to receive a 2017 Tower Award, nearly 300 gathered for the annual recognition ceremony, hosted by OMED: Educational Services, on April 6.

“Our students set the standard for what the next generation can accomplish with a high-quality education and community support,” said OMED Director Cynthia Moore. “For instance, one of our Tower Award recipients, Cray Noah, was recently accepted into Harvard Medical School, and we are very proud of him! Cray served as a physics tutor and mentored several pre-med students in OMED for years.”

Award categories included Ph.D. Awards, Master’s Awards (graduating GPA of 3.5 or higher), Graduating Senior Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher), Sustained Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher), Yearly Awards (GPA of 3.15 or higher over the past three semesters), and First-Year Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher). Within each award category, except the Ph.D. and Master’s Awards, sub-categories included Bronze (GPA of 3.15-3.49), Silver (GPA of 3.50-3.94), and Gold (GPA of 3.95 or higher).

Two special honors were also conferred: the Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization (GTBAO) Unsung Hero Award and OMED Student Mentor Award. Renee Copeland, a biomedical engineering undergraduate student, received the Unsung Hero Award, and Nyemkuna Fortingo, a biochemistry undergraduate student, was recognized with the Student Mentor Award. Both also received a 2017 Tower Award for their outstanding academic performance at Tech.

“I am thankful to GTBAO for this award, and I credit support from OMED for this achievement,” said Copeland, who plans to pursue a graduate degree in public health. Fortingo, who plans to attend medical school, echoed the sentiment: “OMED has had a huge impact on my life – both academically and socially. As an incoming freshman, I participated in the Challenge program, and my Challenge counselors inspired me to become a Challenge counselor and Edge mentor.” Challenge is an immersive bridge program for incoming freshmen, and the Edge program pairs first-year students with upperclassmen who help them acclimate to Georgia Tech.

As the ceremony concluded, Henderson Johnson II, an aerospace engineering doctoral student and a co-founder of The Black Burdell, reminded attendees of the meaning and significance of their success.

“As Georgia Tech students, you are called to change the world,” he said. “Every day we are here, we make history. Your story should be one worth noting.”

Part of Institute Diversity’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, OMED is supported by more than 25 corporate partners and sponsors who attended and provided raffle giveaways at the Tower Awards. Corporate partners include 3M, BP, Eaton, John Deere, Northrop Grumman, Procter & Gamble, and Southwire.

To learn more about the Tower Awards, visit www.omed.gatech.edu.

Janet Mock, an activist, author, and media personality, discussed the rewards, challenges, and implications of being black and trans as the featured speaker for Georgia Tech’s Fourth Annual Black History Month Lecture. The visit was co-sponsored by Institute Diversity, African American Student Union (AASU), and the LGBTQIA Resource Center.

“By bringing the achievements of queer black people to the forefront, we hope to honor these exceptional individuals and uncover histories that educate, inspire, and uplift,” said Adreanna Nattiel, graduate assistant in the LGBTQIA Resource Center.

Throughout her speech, Mock emphasized the importance of storytelling. “It gave me visibility and voice and allowed me to shift conversations such as living at the intersections of gender, race, and class, how restrictive gender expectations oppress us all, and the significance of media representation.”

She began with her own story of living in conflict as a young person to “express femininity in a culture that often demeans and devalues feminine people, is binary-prone, and mandates that if you are born with certain body parts, you are not allowed to express who you truly are.”

Mock said many black transgender women are struggling with interconnected issues of homelessness, joblessness, and lack of access to health care and education. “Our history as trans and queer people of color fighting against poverty, policing, brutality, hunger, racism, misogyny, and HIV/AIDS is deep,” she said. “Yet despite the tragedies, there is great resilience in our communities.”

“We must remember that telling our stories can be met with love, understanding, transcendence, and community, which has brought all of us here.”

Mock charged the audience to use its voice, story, privilege, and access to ignite change, and offered guidance “toward becoming more conscious partners in the struggle:”

• Realize allyship is not a label or identity but an action that requires self-education.
• Don’t be basic: Keep it intersectional.
• Remember when you donate your skills, time, and/or money, you are working with a group of people who are already working toward their own liberation.
• Recognize your privilege and use the access that it has given you to uplift marginalized voices.

As AASU Black History Chair Raianna Brown reflected, “I was moved by the vulnerability and realness of Janet Mock. At the end of the lecture, she opened up about the difficulties in being strong for your community and how becoming a symbol can sometimes be alienating. However, you can draw strength to keep going from those who came before us.”

“This lecture was one of the most inspirational events that I have seen at Georgia Tech,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity. “It takes tremendous courage to share your own journey publicly, and the Georgia Tech community immediately embraced her story — rewards and challenges alike.”

To learn more about the Black History Month Lecture, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu. Members of the Georgia Tech community who are interested in learning more about transgender issues can register for Trans 101 trainings at www.lgbtqia.gatech.edu/trans-101.

“The commemoration of Dr. King and the civil rights struggle is of great significance for the timing of this program, as we strive to broaden educational opportunities for all populations,” said S. Gordon Moore Jr., executive director of Institute Diversity’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion.

Last month, 176 minority students participated in the Focus Program from 92 colleges and universities and approximately 33 states. The number of participating colleges and universities has increased by 18 percent from 2016.

Lacie Pierre, undergraduate alumna of the University of California, Merced, remarked, “Applying to graduate school is such a huge process. I wanted to participate in the Focus Program to better understand how the process worked, and it was eye-opening to speak with Georgia Tech faculty, other students, and alumni during the program.”

More than 94 percent of the surveyed participants indicated that the Focus Program increased their desire to apply to Georgia Tech for graduate studies, and 30 percent of the senior applicants have applied to Georgia Tech’s graduate programs.

“These results suggest that the diverse future of graduate education will be enhanced by the efforts of our Focus Program staff, alumni volunteers, panelists, speakers, campus partners, and corporate supporters like Intel,” said Sybrina Atwaters, assistant director, outreach initiatives at OMED: Educational Services, a unit of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion.  

The three-day program includes campus tours; department and lab visits; panel discussions on graduate admissions, fellowships, scholarships, mentoring, and alumni insights; and the President’s Dinner.

“This unique program shows how Georgia Tech values diversity in higher education,” said Diego Huyke Villeneuve, undergraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Professors were eager to speak with us, and the department was open and welcoming.”

Since the program’s inception, more than 2,700 students from a wide array of colleges and universities across the U.S. have participated in Focus. Some 300 former Focus Scholars are among Georgia Tech alumni who have earned master’s and doctoral degrees. Focus Scholars is a component of the program designed to inform juniors and seniors about the benefits of receiving an advanced degree. Additionally, at least six former Focus Fellows are members of Georgia Tech’s engineering faculty; Focus Fellows encourages diverse doctoral students to consider an academic career.

“While fostering an inclusive, supportive environment, Georgia Tech is dedicated to creating the next – the next idea, the next technology, the next legion of diverse, agile minds who are well equipped to imagine and engineer our future,” Moore explained.

Currently, Georgia Tech is the nation’s top producer of doctoral degrees awarded to all racial/ethnic minority students (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education). The Institute also awards more engineering degrees to women than any other school, according to the American Society for Engineering Education.

To learn more about the Focus Program, visit www.focus.gatech.edu.  

Students, faculty, and staff departed in charter buses on the night of January 12 to visit museums and memorials over the next two days, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the King Memorial, National Mall, National Museum of the American Indian, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Diversity Programs Stephanie Ray reflected on why Georgia Tech’s MLK Student Board organized the civil rights tour in D.C.: “We followed the life of Dr. King. After leading civil rights trips in Montgomery, Ala. in 2012 and Birmingham, Ala. in 2013, the next goal was to end our tour by visiting the King Memorial and National Museum of African American History and Culture in our nation’s capital.”

Here is what student participants said about their experiences during the civil rights tour:

Why did you want to go on this trip?

“I wanted to experience the history and culture of Africans before being brought to America. I also wanted to learn more about the Native American culture beyond what is presented in history books.”

– Alexander Pegues, undergraduate student in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

What was your favorite part of this trip?

“The National Museum of African American History and Culture, hands down. From the photos to the interactive learning, it was beautifully designed and presented. The experience was more than you could imagine.”

– Khadijah Boles, undergraduate student in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

What have you learned from this experience that you could apply in your daily life?

“For us, as a people, to progress, we need to come together as one. We also need to make education available to everyone, especially our youth. I plan to start programs for youth that I didn’t have in school but was blessed to have family who taught me.”

– Khadijah Boles, undergraduate student in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

“I saw the triumph of the human spirit over oppression. I apply that triumph to my own daily small victories.”

– TJ Funso, undergraduate student in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Assistant Professor Jennifer Glass also shared her experiences on the civil rights tour at www.storify.com/jenniglass/gt-civil-rights-tour-of-dc.

This year’s tour was sponsored by the College of Engineering, College of Sciences, Department of Housing, Division of Student Life, Institute Diversity, LGBTQIA Resource Center, Office of Student Diversity Programs, and Parent’s Fund for Student Life and Leadership. To learn more about the civil rights tour and Georgia Tech’s MLK Celebration, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/mlk-celebration.

“It has been nearly 50 years since the assassination of Dr. King, yet many of the same issues he worked to address, including racial discrimination, poverty, and social justice, continue to be important to many in our nation today,” said Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity. “That is why the theme of this year’s MLK Celebration at Georgia Tech is ‘Setting the Agenda for the Next Civil Rights Movement.’”

During Georgia Tech’s MLK Lecture on January 11, Bakari Sellers, CNN political analyst, lawyer, and activist, honored Dr. King’s legacy while setting the agenda for the next civil rights movement with students, faculty, staff, and community members. During his remarks, Sellers asked the audience: “How far have we come, and where do we go from here?”

“When you think about the sacrifice of the civil rights leaders like Marion Barry and Julian Bond, and you ask yourself, ‘Where do we go from here?’ there are two choices — chaos or community — as Dr. King once outlined,” said Sellers. “The answer between these choices lies fundamentally in our ability to dream with our eyes open.”

According to Sellers, “When you dream with your eyes open, you seek nothing less than excellence.” He gave an example from his own life, when he made history in 2006 as the youngest member of the South Carolina state legislature and the youngest African-American elected official in the nation.

“We have to remember the names that are not taught. For example, Shirley Chisholm helped paved the way for Hillary Clinton,” remarked Sellers. “We stand on the shoulders of countless heroes who deserve from us to continue this journey on the race to excellence.”

To view the MLK Lecture in its entirety, visit https://youtu.be/I1QildvSWeA.

Georgia Tech’s MLK Celebration is sponsored by Institute Diversity, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Office of Government and Community Relations, Office of Student Diversity Programs, and Student Government Association. To learn more about the MLK Celebration, visit www.diversity.gatech.edu/mlk-celebration.

Students, faculty, and staff from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University participated in the program, which was co-sponsored by Tech’s Office of Hispanic Initiatives and Student Diversity Programs.

Georgia Tech School of Modern Languages Associate Professor Juan C. Rodríguez opened the discussion with a historical overview of the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba since 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War. He briefly discussed the Cuban Revolution in 1933, the emergence of the new Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, how Cuba was affected after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and the recent diplomatic relations with the U.S. 

Panelists then reflected on the impact of a lifted trade embargo with the U.S., race relations in Cuba, and the meaningful contributions of Cuba to the world.

Lifting the Trade Embargo

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro called for the removal of the U.S. trade embargo. Castro argued that Cuba and the U.S. could make more progress on their shared agenda if the embargo was lifted, but the leaders disagreed on some issues, including human rights.¹

“Lift the embargo, and see if socialism survives in Cuba,” commented Richard Laub, director of Georgia State’s Heritage Preservation Master’s Degree Program.

Rodríguez emphasized the importance of distinguishing between the Cuban people and the Cuban government. As Cassandra Gomez, undergraduate student in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, added, “Many Cuban people are fearful of what these opened sanctions could mean.”

Race Relations in Cuba

In the U.S., 38 percent of the population is non-White, including Blacks, Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. They make up 17 percent of Congress.² In Cuba, around two-thirds of the population is non-White, primarily Black and mixed race, and make up about 30 percent of civil and public leadership.³  

“Racial issues in Cuba manifest in institutional leadership,” said Rodríguez.

Georgia State Department of Political Science Associate Professor Henry Frank Carey explained, “You don’t have high crime rates in totalitarian societies. As Cuba democratizes, I think the crime rate may increase from an ‘us versus them’ phenomenon.”

Racial issues are difficult to express in Cuba, according to Georgia Tech GoSTEM Director Diley Hernández. “In Cuba, the official narrative is that there is no racism or sexism because the Revolution ‘fixed’ inequality issues,” she said. “In a totalitarian regime, you cannot acknowledge those issues because in doing so, it is seen as dissenting from the regime.”

Cuban Contributions to the World

The panel agreed on Cuba’s remarkable contributions of art and music to the world. “Cuba has done an outstanding job in keeping art and culture highly accessible to everyone in the country,” remarked Hernández.

Laub added that “Cuba has a robust art and historic preservation program to maintain their architecture,” and according to Carey, “New Orleans became the way station for Afro-Cuban music and dance.”

And of course there’s baseball. “Unlike other Hispanic countries with soccer, baseball is the national sport in Cuba,” said Gomez. “Some Americans think that Cubans are so different from them, but their national sport is our national sport.”

Georgia Tech Human-Centered Computing doctoral student Michaelanne Dye also noted the growing technological advances in Cuba. “The technology sector is fascinating. In the coming years, the latest technology will penetrate Cuba, but currently, Cubans have used ingenuity to connect 9,000 homes in Havana with homegrown internet.”

This panel discussion was part of a series of events to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at Georgia Tech. Other events included the Kickoff on September 15, Cross-Cultural Workshop on September 20, Mini World Cup on September 23, and Closing Banquet on October 5. 

This month, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion launches to provide more programs and pathways to success for underrepresented students on campus. As part of Institute Diversity, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion encourages students to excel academically, interact across cultures and perspectives, and value inclusion.

The purpose of the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion is to serve students from all backgrounds and encourage them to be inventive leaders who think globally. The Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion will be a positive, enriching environment, connecting students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community stakeholders through effective programs, projects, networks, and research.

S. Gordon Moore Jr., executive director, student diversity and inclusion, serves as the director of the new Center.

“One of the findings from Georgia Tech’s Climate Assessment Survey expressed feelings of marginalization by gender, race, and ethnicity among undergraduate and graduate students,” said Moore. “By launching the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, we will better serve the more than 4,000 students who benefit from our programs now—and increase capacity to serve even more current and future students.”

Focusing on the recruitment, retention, and advancement of underrepresented minority and women students, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion houses the following units:

• Office of Hispanic Initiatives (OHI) – Provides programs and pathways to success for the Hispanic/Latino community, primarily current and prospective students and their families, faculty, and staff.
• OMED: Educational Services – Provides programs and pathways to success for traditionally underrepresented students: African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and Multiracial.
• Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology (WST) – Develops initiatives and collaborations that promote women faculty and student interaction around research and practices in STEM.

In the year ahead, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion will offer an Outreach Initiative to assist Georgia Tech in discovering and developing its future pool of talented and diverse students.

“I am excited to see how the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion can create synergy among units in sharing resources, insights, and connections to help increase the diversity of our student population,” said Auston Kennedy, undergraduate student, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering.

Two open houses will be held at the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion: August 22-24 for the campus community and October 29 for alumni. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community stakeholders are encouraged to visit the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion (681 Cherry Street NW) to take a tour of the renovated Chapin Building, learn more about its units and initiatives, and meet its talented staff.

To serve more current and future students, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion also welcomes partnerships with foundations and donors. Learn more at www.csdi.gatech.edu.

A record number of students applied for acceptance to Georgia Tech this year, with applications exceeding 30,500 for the first time. Of those who were accepted, around 2,860 will make up the new class. 

As has been the trend in recent years, their credentials set new highs for an incoming class. These students have taken an average of 10 college-level courses, and 95 percent have take college-level calculus or an equivalent. The students represent 69 countries, 43 states, 89 Georgia counties, and 1,429 high schools (307 in Georgia). The class is 42 percent female — an Institute record for the second year — and 58 percent male.  

“We need more women in STEM and at the table when it comes to policy and product creation in the workforce, and we look at ourselves as part of the solution,” said Rick Clark, director of Undergraduate Admission. 

Still, it’s not just the stats that make Clark proud. 

“The fact that we continue to become more academically talented with each class, and more diverse on almost every metric of what you would call diversity, is really an anomaly,” he said. “Colleges often have to give up one or the other. It kind of blows my mind, but it’s just indicative of Georgia Tech’s excellence and national prominence that we are coupling those two things.”

This year, Tech saw an especially high increase in applications to the College of Computing and growth in matriculation in the College of Sciences, which will make up 13 percent of the new class. 

In 2014, Georgia Tech started the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) Scholars program to recruit, enroll, support and graduate the most academically talented students in the city school system. This year's freshman class includes APS Scholars from 11 of the 13 high schools in the district. Under the program, which started with the incoming class of 2015, Georgia Tech offers automatic admission to all APS valedictorians and salutatorians who apply and covers four years of in-state tuition and mandatory fees.

As this class arrives on campus, the next admission cycle has already begun. This week, Georgia Tech joins the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and several others for the start of the Peach State tour, where colleges collaborate to visit communities around the state and meet with prospective students. 

One of Georgia Tech’s challenges is continuing to attract the best and brightest in all of Tech’s disciplines as the cost of higher education continues to increase. 

“We don’t want to be an institution where students come out with a high debt burden, even if they are willing to pay,” Clark said. “We have to find a way to meet a higher percentage of financial need.” 

Another challenge is to continue the upward trajectory Georgia Tech has seen in enrollment for the past five years. 

“We’re really competing with the best schools in the country,” Clark said. “To make the Olympic comparison, the people we are in the pool with are the best in the country, and we’re racing right there with them.” 

“From interning at NASA to creating The Black Burdell, a nonprofit organization that is changing the face of entrepreneurship, our OMED participants and Tower Awards recipients are defining what’s next at Georgia Tech and beyond, and we applaud their hard work, persistence, and determination,” said OMED Director Cynthia Moore.

Award categories included Ph.D. Awards, Master’s Awards (graduating GPA of 3.5 or higher), Graduating Senior Sustained Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher), Sustained Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher), Yearly Awards (GPA of 3.15 or higher over the past three semesters), and First-Year Awards (cumulative GPA of 3.15 or higher). Within each award category, except the Ph.D. and Master’s Awards, sub-categories included Bronze (GPA of 3.15-3.49), Silver (GPA of 3.50-3.94), and Gold (GPA of 3.95 or higher).

Two special recognitions were also presented: Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization Unsung Hero Award and OMED Student Mentor Award. Jasmine Atkinson, an industrial and systems engineering student, received the Unsung Hero Award, and Sergio Sandoval, an aerospace engineering student, was honored with the Student Mentor Award. In addition, both students received a 2016 Tower Award for their outstanding academic performance at Tech.

“OMED is the reason that I was so successful at Georgia Tech,” said Atkinson, who will join Eaton, one of OMED’s corporate partners, after graduation this summer. “From participating in the Challenge Program to serving as a tutor, OMED was my home away from home, and I am honored to receive the Unsung Hero Award for my efforts over the past five years.”

Sandoval, who will be interning at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory this summer, was surprised by the recognition, remarking, “Awards like this help us keep going.”

Part of Institute Diversity, OMED is supported by more than 20 corporate partners and sponsors who attended and provided raffle giveaways at the Tower Awards. Corporate partners include 3M, BP, Eastman, Eaton, John Deere, Northrop Grumman, Procter & Gamble (the sponsor of the Tower Awards recognition ceremony), and Southwire.

To learn more about the Tower Awards, visit www.omed.gatech.edu. 

Last month, 191 students participated in Focus — up from 160 participants in 2015. Among this year’s participants,105 students were female and 143 were Ph.D. candidates. This marks a 28 and 21 percent respective increase from 2015.

“We are proud to have accepted 55 percent women to the Focus program this year, and this trend mirrors Georgia Tech’s record-setting freshman class being 41 percent female — the first class to ever top 40 percent,” said Andre Dickens, assistant director, outreach initiatives at OMED: Educational Services, a unit of Institute Diversity.

In addition, this year’s Focus program participants represented 78 colleges and universities from approximately 25 states and U.S. territories. Morolake Omoya, undergraduate student at UCLA, remarked, “Before Focus, I had no idea that there was such a welcoming place for me in the United States. Georgia Tech has always been my dream graduate school, and I am thankful to all the organizers of this program for opening my eyes to a bright future.”

The four-day program includes campus and city tours; department and lab visits; panel discussions on graduate admissions, fellowships, scholarships, mentoring, and alumni insights; and the President’s Dinner.

“It is our hope that prospective graduate students will take away these lessons from Focus: a better understanding of the graduate school process and life at Georgia Tech; the importance of networking, particularly making valuable connections with professors; and how empowering it is to be part of a like-minded community,” said Georgia Tech Alumnus Cedric Stallworth, assistant dean for outreach, enrollment, and community in the College of Computing.

Focus President’s Dinner Keynote Speaker Rosalind L. Hudnell, vice president and director of Intel Corporation’s Corporate Affairs Group and president of the Intel Foundation, offered advice to the program participants: “Sometimes, the real world will take away your confidence or treat you like you’re not smart enough. Throughout your life, always remember to advocate for yourself.”

Since the program’s inception, more than 2,500 students from a wide array of colleges and universities across the U.S. have participated in Focus. Some 300 former Focus Scholars are among Georgia Tech alumni who have earned master’s and doctoral degrees. Focus Scholars is a component of the program designed to inform undergraduate juniors and seniors about the benefits of receiving an advanced degree. Additionally, six former Focus Fellows are members of Georgia Tech’s engineering faculty; Focus Fellows encourages diverse doctoral students to consider an academic career.

“Increasing diversity in higher education through programs like Focus will contribute to the preparation of a diverse workforce equipped to meet the complex challenges of the 21^st century and global community,” said S. Gordon Moore Jr., executive director of Institute Diversity’s Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion.

Currently, Georgia Tech is the nation’s top producer of doctoral degrees awarded to all minority students (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education). The Institute also awards more engineering degrees to women than any other school, according to the American Society for Engineering Education.

To learn more about the Focus program, visit www.focus.gatech.edu.

The pledge essentially asks signees to make a personal commitment to create a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive culture throughout the Georgia Tech community. Students from the SGA committee will also be tabling on Tech Walk as part of their efforts. 

To sign the pledge, visit www.c.gatech.edu/pledge. Those who want to continue related conversations on social media are invited to use the hashtag #techtogether.

During the tournament, inspired by the FIFA World Cup, more than 100 students — along with several faculty and staff members — played on 16 teams that represented different countries across the world. The faculty/staff team represented the Schools of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Biology, and the Offices of the Provost, Registrar, Institute Communications, and Institute Diversity.

“Soccer is considered by many as the most popular sport in the world, and while it is not ‘officially’ a Hispanic or Latino sport, it is by far the favorite sport in Latin America and Spain. This was reflected by the fact that half of the teams in this year’s five-hour tournament represented Latin American countries and Spain,” said Jorge Breton, director of OHI.

The team representing Ecuador emerged the champion of the 2015 Mini World Cup; second place went to the team representing Turkey. Both teams received trophies, with each player receiving a medal.

Co-sponsored by Institute Diversity and OHI, Georgia Tech’s Hispanic Heritage Month recognizes the economic, cultural, and social contributions of Latinos in the United States.

Keynote speaker Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, set the tone for the event by stating, “America is in a state of change. Embracing this change is what diversity in the 21^st century is all about. Diversity is a value for this country; it isn’t limited to an office or a symposium.”

This “state of change” was explored by James H. Johnson, Jr., distinguished professor and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the University of North Carolina, during the morning sessions of the Diversity Symposium. Johnson shared how demographic disruptions will impact higher education in the next 25 years, such as the growing population in the South; the shifting immigration-driven population; the approaching “Silver Tsunami” from changing life expectancy, declining fertility, and aging Baby Boomers; and the increasing rate of intermarriage.

“Our next generation of talent must be more diverse than the current generation,” said Johnson. “Institutions cannot afford to leave out anyone in the future. To anticipate these changing demographics, we must provide an alternative model of greater access and affordability.”

To conclude the morning sessions, ADVANCE Professors Mary Frank Fox, Pinar Keskinocak, Wing Suet Li, Dana Randall, Catherine Ross, and Beril Toktay discussed equity in faculty hiring, and Institute Diversity Associate Vice President Julie Ancis analyzed how unconscious thoughts influence behaviors at work.

“This event is important because we don’t pay enough attention to diversity issues in general,” said Ashok Goel, professor in the School of Interactive Computing. “Being a good citizen of the community means being inclusive and embracing diversity in all of its forms.”

During the Diversity Symposium Awards Luncheon, Morial addressed how to redefine civil rights in the 21^st century through his “Three D’s of Diversity”:

• Defend democracy by pushing against the ideas of voter suppression (or voter self-suppression).
• Develop human capital by educating people to be self-sufficient and successful in this society.
• Demand jobs for all and economic opportunity for the next generation.

Prior to the keynote address, eight Diversity Champion Award winners were recognized for actively demonstrating and positively promoting the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Georgia Tech campus community. This year’s winners are Mary Lynn Realff (faculty co-winner), Stephen Ruffin (faculty co-winner), Madison Cario (staff co-winner), Matthew Hall (staff co-winner), Alex Berry (student co-winner), Andrea Welsh (student co-winner), Division of Student Life (unit co-winner), and School of Mathematics (unit co-winner).

Following the Diversity Symposium Awards Luncheon, faculty, staff, and students had the opportunity to attend afternoon sessions on LGBTQIA rights; sexual violence; or bullying, incivility, and lack of collegiality in the workplace and classroom. 

“Thank you to the campus community members who participated in and contributed to the Diversity Symposium,” said Archie W. Ervin, vice president of Institute Diversity. “Events like these are important in helping us build an inclusive community where every human being is valued and respected—especially in light of recent discrimination issues.”

To learn more about the Diversity Symposium and/or view Johnson’s presentation on disruptive demographics, visit diversity.gatech.edu/seventh-annual-diversity-symposium.